Friday, September 21, 2007

Squirrel Terror Squad



The hunt for the terrorists who didn't blow up ten jet airliners with two bottles of gatorade or even try to bring down a 747 with an underwear bomb but only succeed in blowing their own bollocks off, but are know to have tufty ears and fluffy tails has centred on a wood in High Wycombe, UK. Police will not say what they hope to find in the stretch of woodland for fear of compromising the investigation.

Squirrel Shit of Mass Destruction is what they are going to find of course.

Spiritual Squirrels


No time for a proper blog today so here's a joke someone sent me.

There were five country churches in a small Texas town;
the Presbyterian Church, the Baptist Church, the Methodist Church, the Catholic Church, and the Jewish Synagogue. Each church was overrun with pesky squirrels.

One day, the Presbyterian Church called a meeting to decide what to do about the squirrels. After much prayer and consideration they determined that the squirrels were predestined to be there and they shouldn't interfere with God's divine will.

In the Baptist Church the squirrels had taken up habitation in the
baptistery. The deacons met and decided to put a cover on the baptistery and drown the squirrels in it. The squirrels escaped somehow and there were twice as many there the next week.

The Methodist Church got together and decided that they were
not in a position to harm any of God's creation. So, they humanely trapped the squirrels and set them free a few miles outside of town. Three days later, the squirrels were back.

But the Catholic Church came up with what was thought to be the best and most effective solution. They baptized the squirrels and registered them as members of the church. Now they only see them at Christmas and Easter.

Not much was heard about the Jewish Synagogue but they took one squirrel and performed a short service with him called circumcision and they haven't seen a squirrel on the property since.


High Flyin' Squirrels


by fatsally @ 2009-06-30 – 13:01:08

Cleo Hart tells us of the wallabies high on opium, but what are the sqirrels doing these days?
I don't know if anyone else has noticed but they do seem to be falling out of their trees onto busy roads rather a lot lately.
There were at least six on a two mile stretch of the A628 this morning. And they didn't appear to be squashed.
I suppose there could be some vigilantes cruising up and down the road, armed with air rifles taking pot-shots at the little buggers, but I don't really think that's the case.
Or perhaps the squirrels that don't make the leap from the trees on one side to the trees on the other are inferior in some way.
Seconds squirrels.
Myopic, dodgy knees, clawless.
A demonstration of Darwinism at work.
On the other hand, it's not that long ago that some walkers noticed a bit of a funny whiff in the air as they walked down a lane from the main road.
Police were called in and they found a substantial mound of marijuana plants dumped in a field...

"Wagwan! Rusty, how you goin'?"

"Hey Tufty, look what I've found.
A whole load of shit, man!
Give me a hand and we'll drag a couple of these plants back to the tree.
Wow, we is going to have us a good time!
Man!"

"Wow, like, crazy, man.
We gonna dry it or are we jus' gonna chew it?
It sure do smell good."

"Well I think we ought to test it out y'know.
Make sure it's okay.
Then we can sell it on to the brothers at, like, a few acorns a gram.
Hee hee, we is gonna be two rich squirrels."

Later....

"Oh, man, Tuft, this is just soooo gooood."

"Too right,Rustman, this stuff gives you wings.."

"Hey yeah, just like those flyin' squirrels man..."

"Yeah, flying squirrels.... I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky..."

"Yo, man, I'm flyin... hey look at me fly... I'm flyinnnnnn..."
Thwack.

"Aw shit man, it look like you come down to earth with a bump. Watch meeee..."
Thwack.

Later still.

"Shame old Tuft and Rusty bought it. Funny how they both fell out of a tree.
Still best get on and clean out their nest.
Hmmm, wonder what this is, smells a bit funny.
Maybe it's one of those exotic herbs, they were into all that stuff, liked to spice up the acorn cutlet.
I'll just take some home and try it out, maybe put some on those old horse chestnuts..."




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Drunken Moose
They're big, they're short sighted and they are inclined to turn nasty when they've had a drink. Drivers in Gothenburg were terrorised by a drunken moose blocking the road and challenging Volvos to "come and have a go if you think you're hard enough.

Getting Shrew Arsed Again
The Malayan Tree Shrew is not an agresive drunk but they are pissed for much of the time and they fall out of their tree a lot. You might find one sleeping it off in your hair.

Grey and White Peril
They're the chavs of the animal kingdom, aggressive, destructive and in your neighbourhood. ASBS for badgers have proved worthless as a deterrent, they tend to regard the punishment as a status symbol.

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Thursday, August 16, 2007

God's Shock Jock?



Those of you who read my articles or are aware of my relationship with religion of most kinds (I like Paganism and Hinduism / Buddhism) might be surprised to learn that earlier today I was guesting on a Chistian Radio show for London's Premier Radio station.

Even more strange, the producer Justin Brierley contacted me after following comment threads on some of my jousts with fundies here at Gather.

Well Justin's show "Unbelieveable" is a British production with a more moderate tone than U.S. evangelical Christianity, so after some discussion I decided the programme would be fun to do and managed to get my friend Jenni Hutchinson invited as my opponent, the Christian speaker. Did you know that satan is the Aramaic (ancient Assyrian language) word for opponent or adversary. Ha! Jenni is a little devil - she will love that.

Anyway we put together a really good programme, covering topics such as how the church may fulfil a role in modern society, the nature of faith, building bridges (we bridged the religious divide, the generation gap - Jenni is 24 I'm...not. OK, I'm yibblety-yibble. the geographical divide between north and south and the soccer supporters gap, Jenni follows high flying Arsenal, one of the big guns of European soccer - my loyalties are to lowly Accrington Stanley (the team that came back from the dead - reluctantly apparently.)

All in all we proved there can be dialogue between Christians and non believers.

It will be difficult to get the show on the air in America but there is an internet feed. Here are the details:

The programme airs at 2pm this Saturday here are the ways to listen "Live"1305, 1332, 1413 MW (Greater London) Sky Digital 0123 Virgin Media 968 Freeview 725 London DAB or online at http://www.premier.org.uk/
From (Usually) Monday you can listen to the archive edition of the programme online http://www.premier.org.uk/engine.cfm?i=680
Not of great spiritual interest to many of my gather friends maybe, as most share my attitude to organised religion, but a worthwhile demonstration of constructive dialogue between faith and non-faith, with some good points made on both sides.

OK, that's just a cynical ploy to boost the show in search engine listings of course. But you will excuse me one shameless self promotion item I'm sure. I promise to get back to more humour and controversy next time.



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The Charge Of The Anti-enlightenment Brigade
I don’t know if many of you remember London's Atheist Bus a few years ago. It toured the city bearing adverts that read: ‘There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.’ and was a great success[ ... ] this demonstrates the Sheeple - like tendencies of those who claim they have reason on their side: the religious propagandist with the sandwich board saying ‘repent, the end is nigh' was always the subject of jokes. Why do the opposing side now feel the need to parade high tech sandwich boards saying, "no need to repent, the end isn't nigh'?


Monday, July 02, 2007

Blair's Last Audience

It is well known that H M Queen Elizabeth II, in common with other members of Britain's Royal family did not much like Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair. Whether it is true or not that she thought him an arse licking snivelling, slimy little git we shall never know, but ir is well know that Blair, more than any Prime Minister before him was as much in awe of rank and status as he was of power and money.

So you may form your own conclusions.

This post is for those of you who have wondered what was said between Blair and The Queen at their last weekly audience. If you find those stiffly formal official press releases unconvincing, click the LINK below to read an unofficial transcript of what was really said:

BLAIRS LAST AUDIENCE (audio file)


The Real Queen's Speech

by Jenny Greenteeth


The following text is a transcript of the final meeting between Prime Minister Tony Blair and HM The Queen befoire Blair left office. The way our voice to text interpreter has rendered Her Maj's mangled vowels is enough proof of its authenticity we think.

The Real Queens Speech
by Ian R Thorpe
2007-11-06
CREATIVE COMMONS: Attribute, non commercial, no derivs.
KEYWORDS: government,parliament, royal, royalty, queen, speech, state, humour, humor, satire, blog,boggart-blog, greenteeth

The Queen’s speech shown on television and in news bulletins is, like most things in politics, a fake. The Houses of Parliament is a set left over from those dramas Ian Richardson starred in, the MPs and Lords are extras – did you not notice someone looking suspiciously like Ricky Gervais trying to get in shot? And everybody knows the Queen is played by Helen Mirren.

There is a real Queen’s speech of course, but the Government in its wisdon decided a long time ago that us ordinary punters cannot cope with the reality of politics so its contents are kept from us. Soft Mick, the Boggart Blog invisible reporter managed to get into the House of Lords this year and send video of the proceedings to BBC Reporter’s mobile phone. So here, exclusive to Boggart Blof is The Real Queens Speech.

MY LORDS LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, HONOURABLE MEMBERS, THE QUEENS SPEECH.

Loyal subjects, mai Government and Ay hev pleasure in in annincing our plans for the coming year. Main Government intends to press ahead with its praygramme to make Britain the only European (hack – phut) Nation to obtain one hundred par cent of its electricity from wind. New technology to harness fart power will be unveiled earleah in 2008. All reseairch into anti – obesity dregs will be suspended as people who are too fat to wipe hev huge potential sources as sources of renewable enairgeah.

My government will continue with its praygramme of taxing the pooah in order to reward the rich who give far more moneagh to politicians. Furtheagh more... oh poo, do I hev to say all this shite? who writes this nonsense. Renewable energeagh, tax cuts, its the same evereagh yeah and nothing changes. If this is mai Government like what it is supposed to be, I want something done abite the ban on fox hunting. And I don’t want that miserable fakker Brine as Prime Ministair, I quaite liked Bleagh, his ears were rartheagh amusing, they took on a life of their own when he became excited. But Brine is miserable, he hates Corgis and his wife does not hev a comedy mithe.

Nigh Ay’m the Queen and ay do not care for the way things are being done. Fairstleah, Ay want a proper Prime Ministair who owns a Grise Moor. We have not had a grice moor owning Prime Ministair since Lord Hume. It was traditional then that after ay got this poxy Queen’s Speech job, which I realleagh hate, ite of the way every year, the Prime Ministair would invite one’s husband and one to his grise moor for a few days shooting. It made all this worthwhile. Young Cameron has potential and he looks laike the right sort of fellow, I imagine somebody in his famileagh owns a grise moor. So in the coming year mai government will introduce a law banning anybodaigh who does not own a grise moor from becoming Prime Ministair. Then Ay shall sack all you commoners and hold an election in which the boy Cameron and his chums have all the votes.

Once we hev a Prime Ministair who owns a grise moor my government will repeal the legislation that bans foxhunting. Its jolly undemocratic you know, not one of my family agreed with it so how did it become law. Where is the democraseagh in that? I know a lot of you think foxes are rather cute and cuddly, so from consideration for your feelings we tried hunting chavs but they are neither so quick nor cunning as foxes. Nobody complained but it was just not the same.

Finally, we shall encourage servility. Now that the service industry is the largest source of employment again it is time the pooah we reminded of their obligation to be servile. Forelock tugging will be de-rigeur and talking back to one’s betters will be a capital offence. We shall also revive for Corporate CEOs the Droit de Siegneur, Primae Noctis. The CEO of aneagh corporation worth more than ten billion pinds will hev the right to deflower any attractive totty to join his organisation on the evening of the day she starts work. Our entrepreneurs must be given incentives if the nation is top prospair.

Raight, that’s it, you can all fack orf, I’m gaying hame to watch Helen Mirren doing the official version of this to see what bullshit my loyal servants have cooked up for the punters this yeagh.

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Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Bad News For Dwarf Throwers.



The killjoy army seems to be unstoppable at the moment, the Politically Correct Thought Police are everywhere.

Following news that the government plans to crackdown on "in the home drinking" because a civilised glass of wine with dinner might turn one into an alcoholic, we now learn that the government pokenoses have intervened to force the cancellation of the UK Dwarf Throwing Championship in London’s Egg club.
,
Apparently there were ‘elf and safety’ concerns

(For those who don’t know, in Australian Rules dwarf throwing, dwarves clad in velcro are thrown at a felt covered board and the winner is the person whose dwarf sticks longest. The sport originated in Australia. In the UK we only invent sports that involve molesting small furry animals.) Our pictures shows an international dwarf throwing event in the UK between England and USA played under Texas / Yorkshire rules, where the thrower whose dwarf travels the greatest distance wins.


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Tuesday, May 22, 2007

THE THIRD WORLD WAR

This blog was posted ten years ago. How little has changed other than the labels we stick on the bad guys. As you read this blog, whenever you counter the word Iran, substitute Syria and when you read Bush, make it Obama. Round and round we go on the propaganda carousel.


A headline in one of today's papers, over a picture of an overturned and burned out tank in which six U.S. soldiers and an interpreter told us that Iran is orchestrating an offensive aimed at driving the Americans and British out of Iraq.The story that followed reported that new alliances have been forged between Sunni insurrectionists (they're not insurgents, OK, they'e bloody insurrectionists) and Shia militia, Al Quaeda terror groups and Syrian geurillas have increased the strike capabilities of the Iraqis.

This is the response to Bush's surge of course.

Loyal readers of Boggart Blog and Little Nicky Machiavelli blog will recall we predicted about a year ago that the conflict would escalate towards full scale war in late 2007 or early 2008 as defeat for the religious right in the U.S. Presidential elections started to look certain.

Earlier this year we reported that U.S. and British troops had been carrying out covert operations inside Iran with the aim of stirring up unrest.

Now our discredited and deluded politicians are trying to fool us by crying foul when the Iranians retaliate.
It is time we took to the streets to put an end to this insanity before we are counting our dead in hundreds rather than tens each week.

PALS
Song Of War

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Friday, March 16, 2007

Tridentine Folly



One of Britain's Trident Submarines - a bit useless against suicide bombers on the London Underground

Whatever else we may think of recently elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, he has certainly livened up politics.

Last time the UK Parliament had to consider renewing the contract by which Britain agrees to pay the USA a huge sum for the privilege of being Uncle Sam's nuclear base in Europe and thus first in the firing line if anything kicks off between America and Russia, David Cameron was leader of the opposition and the traitor and war criminal Tony Blair was Prime Minister.

There was never any chance that Parliament would vote down the diktat of His Excellency Fuhrergeneralissimo, President for Eternity Blair. Presented with an opportunity to "do the right thing" the Conservatives showed, as we knew they would, that they are mealy mouthed, wet-arsed cowards who whimperingly yearn for another dominatrix to do their thinking for them.

They cite tactics as an excuse for their yellow bellied cowardice. What tactics? If Trident had been rejected (in modern warfare, against a nutter with a rucksack full of bleach and acetone on a rush hour tube train, it would be about as much use as the proverbial chocolate teapot) Blair would have faced a vote of confidence. Which he would have won.

Had that happened Blair would truly have been a lame duck Prime Minister, his political potency castrated and his legacy in ruins he would have had to stand by and watch his party polarise as the Tories did after the fall of Thatcher.

Now that would have been tactics.

Unfortunately Boy - boobs Cameron did not have the balls. Now, we are happy to say, Jeremy Corbyn does, he will oppose Trident (for the wrong reasons but a result is a result) and with the backing on SNP MPs couls severely damage Camero's credibility, if not defeat him and force a vote of confidence in the Prime Minister on this issue.

Because of intemperate remarks allegedly made on Andrew Marr’s Sunday morning television news magazine by Gen Sir Nicholas Houghton, the chief of the defence staff (“Pacifist Jezza not fit to be PM,”) a row has erupted about whether serving army officers are allowed to have an opinion.

What Houghton had actually said to Marr and realised that the senior soldier had tiptoed, not through the tlips, but through the Trident debate more deftly than print media had reported overnight.

I don’t think Sir Nick (as we should all think of him) poses any kind of threat. He seems emollient and sensibly bland; perhaps his appointment in 2013 was a reaction to his feisty predecessor, Gen Sir David (now Lord) Richards, who was inclined to launch surface to Ivory Tower missiles at government bean counters over budget cuts or David Cameron’s cadet corps’ strategic thinking.

But don’t think this sort of trouble will now melt away, for several reasons. Like most public servants, the military is pretty cross these days about the political class, Tory as well as Labour, for asking the soldiers (mostly), sailors and aircrews to do more for less, with less pay and fewer perks too. Even on Remembrance Day, it’s fair to point out that more pensioners have met an early death because of the cuts than soldiers, but their grievance is also legitimate.

So Cameron got it in the neck from Richards over Libya, as Gordon Brown and Tony Blair once did from the pyrotechnic former SAS man Lord Guthrie.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Cannabis and Common Sense

11 November, 2015


The cannabis cadeuceus (image source)

This is a story from the British courts (back in 2005), it should concern us all however. It is not particularly about the rights and wrongs of cannabis, it is about the exculsion of compassion and common sense from the legal process. When the law is managed by bureaucrats we will soon lose our freedoms. I update because only last week a similar case came before a US court, with a similarly bureaucratic and compassionless outcome.

Sixty - Eight year old Patricia Tabram of Hemshaugh, Northumbria was convicted at Carlisle Crown Court yesterday of possessing cannabis. She had admitted growing three plants in her wardrobe for self medication purposes. Mrs Tabram, who suffers from depression and arthritis mixes the dried, ground laves with various foods to lift her depression and give her respite from the chronic pain in her joints. She claims cannabis it the only therapy which works on her symptoms without causing debilitating side effects. A cup of hot chocolate containing a little cannabis gives her five hours relief from pain, the court was told.

Now this person who does not have much quality of life left nor much to look forward to in her remaining years is faced with the prospect of having to do 250 hours community service (with crippling arthritis, yeah right!) and pay £1000 legal costs. Because of the conviction her home in a sheltered unit provided by a Housing Association is also at risk.
In passing sentence Judge Barbara Forrester said she understood Mrs. Tabram only used the drug for self medication and had no intent to supply others but the law limited the scope for leniency.

It has always been a principle of Western justice since the Ancient Greeks gave us the basis of our civilisation (though it is too rarely observed in recent centuries when vengeance and retribution seem to be the only principles that matter) that justice should be tempered with compassion. If ever there was a case for a judge set a precedent in the interests of justice this was it.

Sadly, under the bureaucratic dictatorship that economic liberalism has imposed on us in the past three decades, common sense is always overridden by rules and regulations. Judges seem ever more reluctant to give verdicts that challenge a bad law because the government, which is jealous of the power of an independent judiciary, may use it as an excuse to further undermine that independence. This has led to many deplorable decisions by the dispensers of justice.

Another social commentator at an American website wrote last week of a "social recession" in the free world. It is hardly surprising. When those with the authority to do so are afraid to challenge bad laws, respect for the law breaks down. And when respect for the law breaks down we cease to be a society and become a rat pack.

Ian Thorpe at Authorsden


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While medical science, funded by research grants from Big Pharma and corporate health care pushes to find ever more costly (i.e. profitable) therapies for the diseses that threaten us, the body is its own best doctor, as our ancestors knew. All we need do in many cases is give it the right support.



Mother jailed for child cruelty after rejecting NHS care to seek treatment at foreign clinic for teenager’s hormone therapy


from: The Ledbury Reporter:

"A MOTHER took her daughter for medical tests for conditions she didn't have and gave her medication that would not have been prescribed by doctors in the UK, a jury has been told. Health professionals, police and social services became involved after an article written by the girl's mother was seen by her father, Worcester Crown Court heard.

NHS Money Wasting Machine And The One Budget That Is Never Cut

After the usual empty promises made at the annual conferences of the three main political parties - all three party leaders swore that only their party can save the National Heath Service (NHS) eternally a key isue in UK politics, we decided it was time our we too a close look at why NHS finances are always in a mess. We assigned the task to our team of old gits with a vast store of business experience behind them and no fears of suffering career damage as the Politically Correct Thought Police exact retribution for the crime of being 'off message'.

Evil Labour Government Helped Private Companies Profit From NHS

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UK Health Watchdog: Studies Show Mobile Phones Cause Brain Tumours
Over the past last two years, following publication of metastudies like World Health Organisation's International Agency For Research On Cancer report on the effects of radio frequency electromagnetic waves, there is new evidence that mobile phones use can be dangerous to our health. A less technical summary of that is available from Cancer Research UK. Wireless phones, even those DECT systems you use with your landline so you can wander around with the handset, emit radio-frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) when in use...

UK Health Watchdog: Studies Show Mobile Phones Cause Brain Tumours
Over the past last two years, following publication of metastudies like World Health Organisation's International Agency For Research On Cancer report on the effects of radio frequency electromagnetic waves, there is new evidence that mobile phones use can be dangerous to our health. A less technical summary of that is available from Cancer Research UK. Wireless phones, even those DECT systems you use with your landline so you can wander around with the handset, emit radio-frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) when in use...



India To Prosecute Bill Gates For His Vaccine Crimes

It's about time someone prosecuted him, every version of Windows has been a crime against humanity. The man who made "Not fit for purpose" marketable quality, the man who made it possible for the NSA to spy on us all, has been protected for far to long by the US Government. Someyhing to do with his father having been a director of the CIA perhaps? ...You may say that, I couldn'r possibly comment.

US Centre for Disease Control Opposes Blocking Air Travel from West Africa to Stop Ebola
Right of return and gender dimension more important than stopping spread of disease? Well that sounds about right for the admistration of The Rent Boy President. Always put acting in a politically correct way before common sense. How about this for a totally fickwitted attempt to deal with a crisis (or mayve a smart but totally evil way to create a crisis.


The science of saturated fat: A big fat surprise about nutrition?

After years of being told saturated fat is a killer and we should avoid it in favour of Big Food products that are the nearest modern chemistry can get to packaging arterial plaque, yet another scientific meta analysis shows the sat fat scare was based of fraudulent science and there is no evidence your steak is harming you.


Ebola and the Absent “Humanitarians”

When the FUKUS axis leaders, France, United Kingdom and the Unites States of America were calling for approval to intervene in Libya, Yemen, Syria and Ukraine, they justified their lust for war by claiming that bombing the crap out of those counties was necessary on humanitarian grounds. And the member of the FUKUS axis and their allies spent billions of $£€ on humanitarian bombs that wreaked hiumanitarian havoc among the innocent poor and middle class citizens of those nations. Now they have work out their 'The Jihad Is Coming' scare but have a new weapon Ebola ...


Why Does The US Government Hold A Patent On The Ebola Virus? Just Askin'

The outbreak of Ebola fever in west Africa has been making headlines since January this year, but as usual we are only being told half the story by mainstream media. It took a lot of digging by myself and colleagues in the blogosphere to dig up this pile of dirt which suggests the "new strain" of Ebola faver that has killed far more people than previous outbreaks may have resulted from attempts to weaponise the virus. And guess which national government is allegedly responsible.


A Message For Nanny State

Nanny State is on the warpath, admonishing finger wagging furiously, lips compressed into a thin line, she is launching another determined effort to make sure we are all too scared to think for ourselves or make our own choices, Nanny is now warning, with the usual threats of early and painful death is we disobey, that we should ...


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Saturday, February 10, 2007

A Stick With Which To Beat Dick


by Xavier Conolly


The Carbon cucle of a tree (Image source)

Billionaire self - publicist Richard Branson has offered a $25million prize for the first scientist to come up with a machine that will suck carbon dioxide out of air.

Sorry to be the one to break the bad news folks but such a machine already exists, it called a tree and a lady named Mother Nature has been growing them for millions of years.

Ma. N. is unlikely to claim Dick’s money however, she is an old hippy and has never had any interest in money. On the up side she will be happy to keep providing us with as many tress as we need free of charge so long as we promise to stop cutting them down to make room for more houses, offices, factories, roads and shopping malls.

So the answer is simple and the Branson prize for reinventing the wheel is just another publicity stunt.
But Mother Nature is no meanie, she tells me if we all start being nicer to her she will ask her trees to provide each of us with a stick with which to beat Branson for being a Dick.

When we get down to the fine detail, the billionaires who suddenly develop an interest in saving the planet can always be linked to schemes to suck CO2 (an essential trace gas without which carbon based life forms cannot exist) out of the air, or clean up the oceans, and pocket vast profits in the process.

Electric cars are another scam that control freak technology billionaires are trying to hype as an alternative to reality:


from The Tap:
VW scandal opens up the way for electric cars.

Automobile research analyst at Bernstein Research, Max Warburton believes that the VW scandal could mark the beginning of the end for the global diesel car market, In an interview on the subject he stated that: “The move against VW is going to act as a catalyst to speed up the fall in diesel market share in Europe and halt it in the US.” Diesel cars already have a bad reputation amongst those consumers with an environmental interest, because of the high levels of emissions that they produce, and diesel cars are already around 10-15% more expensive to insure than petrol cars (with adequate car insurance coverage being a legal requirement in most markets) making them generally more expensive for consumers to run. This is devastating news for Europe, which has seen billions of euros extensively invested in diesel technology over the last decade, in a bid to find a cleaner and more environmentally friendly diesel engine. The fraudulent activity of the region’s largest manufacturer means that this money has been, effectively, wasted. No doubt because on of their biggest exports sits at the heart of the scandal, the German government has raised its concerns over the lack of regulation within the car industry, and costly new regulations are sure to be implemented in the short term.




Not the first electric car this has happened to while the batteries were charging (Image source)

The VW scandal will open nothing. The case is electric cars simply do not work adequately to be a realistic replacement for the internal combustion engine. Performance drops of quickly as the batteries discharge, the range is poor, recharging takes too long and they are too expensive to be an affordable choice for most people. And they are not clean, they simply move the pollution (far nastier stuff than CO2) away from the street to the mines, smelting plants, battery factories etc.

And as for Googles driverless joke, who would pay £20k to be ferried around in a pimped up mobility scooter that doesn’t work in bad weather. Ignore the hype, electic cars are a pipe dream.

And even if they did work you would have to prise the keys to my Alfa Romeo out of my cold, dead fingers to take that car away from me.

https://originalboggartblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/01/car-barbie-tesla-supercar-bursts-into-flames-while-charging/



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Friday, February 09, 2007

Cold Comforts #1 - Shepherd's Pie

I could not bear to think of my American friends shivering through another winter of arctic conditions without the comfort of some traditional dishes from the North of England. So here we go with the first of a series of recipes that add a new dimension to the phrase "hot and substantial." Now Shepherd's Pie is confusing on two counts, first it is not truly a pie, there being no pastry involved and secondly a lot of people mistake it for cottage pie (it is Shepherd's Pie if made with lamb or mutton and Cottage Pie if made with beef.

Traditional Shepherd's Pie can be bland and dull so we will be zapping this up with a few additions to the basic "school dinners" recipe.

Now, as the famous Mrs. Beeton might have said, "first catch your shepherd..."

shep_pie2

Ingredients (to serve 6 to 8)
2 lbs. Potatoes (mashed with a little milk or butter)
1 medium onion
2 carrots
1 stick celery
1 to 1½ lbs. minced (ground?) lamb or mutton
a small clove of garlic
2 tablespoons (2 Ounces) tomato puree
equal amount of water
Salt, Black Pepper to taste
½ teaspoon each, Thyme & Cumin
A shake of Worcestershire or Soy sauce.

Method:
Heat your oven to 200 Celsius, 400 Fahrenheit

Peel, the potatoes and set them boiling. There will be plenty of time to prepare the rest prepare before they are ready to mash.

Mince or finely chop the onion, carrot and celery and gently fry them in a little of your favourite oil or fat.

Once the onion is translucent set the vegetables aside and fry the lamb with the garlic until it is brown (traditional British chefs would recommend not doing this, but if you don’t the meat will look grey and unappetising.)

When the meat is browned stir the tomato puree and Worcester / Soy sauce into the water and add it to the lamb.

Add the thyme, cumin, salt and pepper and return the vegetables to the pan.

About now the potatoes should be ready to mash with the milk and butter.

Let the meat simmer while you do that.

Put the meat and vegetables in an oval baking dish (it doesn’t have to be oval, but somehow it looks better) Now lightly spread the mashed potatoes on top and fork the surface into a "ploughed field" pattern (kids of all ages like it like that) and bake at the top of the oven for 30 minutes.

British cooking has a reputation for blandness. It was not always so - before the Protestant reformation enjoying one’s food was not considered sinful. Do not skip on frying the vegetables and meat here, it improves the flavour immensely and follows the method described in Elizabethan cookery books.

To make Cottage Pie simply substitute beef for lamb.

A very tasty vegetarian version can be made with a soya based meat substitute



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Saturday, January 27, 2007

How do you stop a Rhinoceros feeling horny?




There's no stopping a horny Rhinosceros (Image source)


German animal rights activists launched a campaign against plans for a giant ferris wheel in Berlin, saying it would disturb the sex lives of rhinos in a nearby zoo.

Investors unveiled plans for a 175 metre wheel, 40 metreshigher than the London Eye, hoping to attract millions of visitors from 2008. Activists say moving lights on the wheel would disturb the
rhinos daily routine and threaten breeding.

Normally I find animal rights campaigns a bit bonkers but I'm right behind this one coz I know how I used to feel when somebody disturbed my mating rituals.


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Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Ice Storm has elements of Shakespearean Tragedy



A contact at gather.com told me yesterday there is a big ice storm going on in America's mid west. Millions of people in the area around St. Louis, Missouri have been without electricity for nearly a week after ice and snow brought down overhead power lines. So far 36 people have died because of the freak weather. Government officials say it will be several more days before power can be restored even if temperatures rise.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070115/ap_on_re_us/winter_blast

Meanwhile us climate change deniers crank up the volume as we ask, "So how does this biggest ice storm ever equate with global warming then eh? And the airlines tell us to keep on flying, there is no danger.

And George W. Bush announces an escalation of the war in the Middle East.

Perhaps the President needs a lesson in literature. Let's start with Shakespeare; Henry 1V part 2 (Act 4) where somebody asks the King:

"Be it thy course to busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels?"
Yeah well, quite.


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Monday, January 15, 2007

Brace Yourselves For The Invasion of Iran.



Sometime early in 2007, one of my blogging alter ego's Little Nicky Machiavelli made one of his famous predictions. (Not all Lille Nicky's predictions come true, we just don't mention the ones that don't.) In posting at Salon.com, Guardian News Blog, Gather.com and other venues I said that with public opinion in the U.S. turning against him, George Bush would delay the war with Iran until after the mid term elections which would go against the Republicans.

Bush would then start banging the wardrums and launch the attack in late 2007 or early 2008, providing an excuse to declare a national emergency and suspend the Presidential elections. Well I exaggerated about the last bit to boost readership, its more likely the attack on Iran will be a last desperate gamble to swing America behind the war and ensure a Republican succession.

That is not how things played out of course, as we now know Vladimire Putin stood between the neo con dominated US military / industrial complex and its dream of perpetual war but most of it I stand by. Only the timescale has been stretched

There follows the opening paragraph of an article written by Dan Plesch, an expert on Middle Eastern politics. It appeared on that day in 2007.

"The evidence is building up that President Bush plans to add war in Iran to his triumphs in Iraq and Afghanistan - and there is every sign, to judge by his warmongering speech in Plymouth last Friday that Tony Blair would be keen to join in if he were still in a position to commit British forces to the field."


Double brace yourselves folks because I now predict that Blair will now delay his resignation until after the invasion of Iran in order to gamble on being asked to stay on rather than "destabilise the government in a time of crisis." After all a change of leadership in such circumstances would be bad for morale.

Power is a very seductive mistress, especially to those with a messianic self image.

READ MORE

How prophetic those last words have turned out to be in most respects. The US military / industrial complex are still seeking world domination. Russia, China and Iran are still defying them. The main difference between then and now is that western nations have abandoned their pretence that elected leaders actually run democratic nations.

Our governments are controlled and all important decisions are made by bureaucrats, academics and wealthy financiers.



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Wednesday, January 10, 2007

DeadHamsterPhone - the latest Must Have...


Hamster Phone - not quite as we imagined but close

I guess you would have to be some kind of idiot genius to buy a dead hamster thinking it was a 3G phone movie player, internet access, a million ring tones and various hands free, ears free, brain free gizmos. But there's a small time criminal down in South Wales currently looking for such a punter.

So how did this crim. come to confuse such a phone with a dead hamster? Well the hamster was all packed up in a nice Eriksson box on the back seat of a parked car.

The hamster's owner is understandably distraught and is getting grief counselling because having been unable to bury his pet he needs to find closure so he can move on.

I can't help thinking however the dead hamster thief could be a struggling taxidermist looking for a way to boost trade. After all a hamster is just the right size to have a modern cellphone inserted in its furry little tummy and what better way to preserve the memory of a beloved pet could there be?

So if you are down in South Wales and you see people walking along the street chatting into a hamster's arse you will know what's going on.


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Friday, January 05, 2007

No Dodgy Syrups in Civil Court Cases.



A Judge should convey an impress of wisdom and gravitas at all time. So why do british High Court judges have to wear comedy wigs?

We're not sure whether the news that soon judges in civil law cases will no longer be required to wear those ridiculous horsehair wigs is a good thing or not.

The question is will the change pressure judges into abandoning also their silk stockings, suspenders and waspie waist-cincher. Or, will the end of this anachronism make them feel liberated enough to choose some entirely more fetching headwear in auburn or blonde from one of those specialist shops for men of certain inclinations we find in the seedy part of town.

ianthorpe at authorsden


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Thursday, January 04, 2007

They Haven't Thought It Through #nnn (sorry I lost count)



When my son was at college, his group did an exercise to find out what words people in Britain, France and The Netherlands associated with various nationalities. Germans were efficient, The British were snobbish, french people were said to be self important, The Dutch boring ... and the word most associated with Americans was 'paranoid'. I'm not saying that is true, but ......

The Original Paramilitary group The Minutemen was formed in America during the War of Independence when the colonists would rally to the call "The British Are Coming."

Since gaining independence from the British Colonial Yoke, America has fallen into a kind of national paranoia. In the early nineteenth century "The Canadians Are Coming" was the cry (and for once it was true as the Canadian army marched to Washington, said "nyah nyah na nyah nyah" and then went home. A few years later it was The Spanish Are Coming, though they got stuck in Texas because half the army deserted to work as film extras on The Alamo. The Spanish (who at the time were really The French) were superseded by the Mexicans who again got stuck in Texas.

Almost as soon as the Mexicans had come and gone The Indians Are Coming became the rallying call for U.S. paranoia although the Native American tribes were not actually posing any threat other than to people who were trying to run them off their traditional lands. That was followed by "The French Are Coming" as Napoleon 111's puppet Emperor of Mexico, Maximilian succeeded in posing no threat whatsoever.

After that they went back to The Indians Are Coming couples with The Blacks Are Coming as the freed slaves demanded work, land and basic human rights (i.e. the right not to be hanged for being black)

The Minutemen became redundant in WW1 as the threat posed by Germany was to America's rapidly growing economic empire became apparent. The 1940s however the need to defend the homeland against things that did not threaten God, Apple Pie and The American Way arose again. The Japanese were coming.

In the 1950s The Russians Were Coming, in the sixties The Chinks Were Coming, in the seventies The East Coast Liberal Faggots were coming. The eighties saw the return of the Russians. The threat in the 1990s was The Ayatollahs and in the 21st century they are going for broke. Not only are the Bearded Ragheads and The Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys posing a threat to the American way of life, but THE MEXICANS ARE COMING! again.

The latest revival of the minutemen, a group in Arizona, are planning to defend the homeland by building an anti - Mexican fence. Leader Al Garza says the 3m high security fence is not purely symbolic though it does symbolise something (he's not sure what.) Garza insists the fence will have a role in stemming the tide of illegal immigrants.
The Minutemen's fence, when completed will be one mile long. The U.S. border with Mexico is 1995 miles long in total.
Does something tell you in their paranoid state they haven't thought it through?


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Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Religion, Science? Will Nothing Shut The Fundamentalists Up?



Evolution - the next stage (Image source)

The religious fundamentalists have surely realised that they cause is lost, the world wasn't created in seven days, periods are not a curse put on women by God for Eve's disobedience and we are not all going to suddenly decide we have to believe their idiotic rantings.

All of which my explain why they are getting loonier and more hysterical in their attempts to scare the gullible.

Two old posts at Pandangon on the fundie related topics are well worth reading to remind ourselves how obnoxious the right were when they had the upper hand (It is therefore understandble that the left have become obnoxious bullies during the Obama era - understandable but not acceptable:

Creationism Is One Long Temper Tantrum

The Voice of God

On the other hand, the sciencologists can be just as bad. Take a look at this exchange between two of our contributors (who both accept Darwinian evolution as the Origin Of The Species presents it, but reject Dawkinsian evolution which requires us to indulge in magical thinking to accept that matter can evolve out of nohing and life can evolve out of non life)

Richard Dawkins: ‘Terrible Indictment’ of Ben Carson That He’s ‘Ignorant’ on Evolution (Breitbart London)


Sunday ( November 1, 2015) on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,”

British evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins said Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson not believing in evolution is a “disgrace for a distinguished doctor” and a “terrible indictment.”

On the Republican candidates not believing in evolution, Dawkins said, “This is not something you believe in or not. This is a fact. It is a fact. It’s just as much as fact as that the earth goes around the Sun. You can’t not believe it unless you’re ignorant. I don’t believe those presidential candidates are ignorant. I believe what they are doing is they think they have got to say that in order to appeal to their constituency. If that’s true, it’s deeply depressing.”

On Dr. Ben Carson specifically Richard Dawkins said, “You just told me all the Republican candidates except one doesn’t believe in evolution, I mean that’s a disgrace. For a senor a very eminent, distinguished doctor, as he is, to say that is even worse. Because of course evolution is the bedrock of biology and biology is the bedrock of medicine. For a distinguished doctor to not understand, I have to use the word understand, he clearly doesn’t understand the fundamental theory of his own subject, that’s a terrible indictment.”


At Boggart Blog (with Greenteeth and The Daily Stirrer) we love to wind up Dawkin's followers for the wy they have turned science into a relion and try to force acceptance of their dogma. The problem I have with Dawkinsian evolution (I'm fine with Darwin)is it proffers 'evolution as the driving force behind the origin of life on earth. One of our contributors decided to stir things up a bit by replying. First thing to note though, Dawkins is not an evolutionary biologist, he's a geneticist and as such tends to overstate the importance of genes.

Arthur Foxake • 2 days ago

If only Dawkins understood evolution himself I might be willing to listen to he opinion. To Dawkins, his followers and other militant atheist sects in the Church Of Scienceology, Evolution is just an atheist creation myth.
A biologist of my intimate acquaintance once told me that abiogenisis (the theory that life emerged spontaneously when a cocktail of chemical compounds came together in warm water surrounding volcanic vents on the seabed) cannot be correct because for a cell to form certain enzymes must be present and these enzymes can only be developed within a living cell. Being a proper scientist she also said that is not certain, but no other explanation stands up to questioning and attempts by bio - chemists to persuade life to emerge spontaneously have failed to produce positive results.
So perhaps Prof Dawkins and his followers can explain for us doubters which came first, the enzymes or the cell?
Abiogenisis is no more credible than The Book Of Genesis and Darwin's 'Origin Of The Species By Natural Selection' etc. only deals with how species, by adapting to environmental changes eventually become new species.


rationalobservations @ Arthur Foxake • 2 days ago

"First it’s important to note that accepting the reality of evolution is not a devotion to atheism.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams recognizes that humans evolved from other animals.
Pope John Paul II openly recognized the realities of evolution in 1996.
President John F. Kennedy had no problem with evolution. In fact, one of his speeches discussing our origin from the sea was played during a Super Bowl XLIX commercial for Carnival Cruise Lines.

There are those who keep a liberal interpretation of their religion that allows compatibility with modern science. This has allowed millions of Christians and people of other faiths to contribute to advancements in medicine, sanitation, food supply, transportation, and other fields that have greatly increased the standard of living for mankind.

And then there are those who keep a dogmatic interpretation of their religion that only leaves room for an 18th century understanding of the universe. Ironically these same people use computers and iPhones. They have no problem using technology that was made available by modern science while keeping their antiquated views of reality.

Someone who dogmatically believes that disease can only be cured by god and prayer will never create a vaccine that will ultimately be responsible for saving millions of lives.

Imagine a child arguing that the earth is not spinning because we don’t feel it or crash into things when we jump straight up. The best thing to do would be to explain the supporting scientific evidence that clearly demonstrates that the earth is spinning and relativity to understand why it doesn’t seem to be from our perspective.

But what if the child refused to listen and simply kept repeating that the earth doesn’t rotate. That is one obnoxious child that refuses to listen or learn. Now let’s suppose the child is 40 years old. We would need to conclude that the adult was mentally challenged, delusional, or extremely gullible and being persuaded by ignorant people.

When creationists argue that we never see a cat turning into a dog, the ignorance is staggering. What makes it worst is they often say things like that with a smug grin. Not only do they have no idea of how a species is classified or how evolution works, they are proudly and shamelessly ignorant. They have no desire at all to read a book and actually learn the subject matter.

A species should never be understood as some giant sudden leap from elephant to tiger. There is no magical point in time where a biological divide causes separate species classifications between animals. This understanding is critical to understanding evolution. The evolution of species isn’t about a sudden giant horn, long neck, or trunk. The most basic species classifications are about the ability to mate.

When the separation of animals occur such as when one group of animals is gradually divided into separate land masses by water through continental separation and drift, and that separation continues to the point where if rejoined the two groups would no longer be able to biologically mate, or when that possibility is extremely low, they would then be classified as different species.

But once again, there is no magical point in time and the definition isn’t perfect. We classify Neanderthals as a different species from our own, but we now know that there was interbreeding between them and our ancient ancestors. Once again, the species classification isn’t based on a magical point in time.

The split between a singular group of animals into different groups in different physical locations which cause them to follow different evolutionary paths is critical to understand. Often a creationist will say if humans evolved from monkeys, why do we still have monkeys. That’s like saying if British people colonized North America, why do we still have British people. And we didn’t evolve from modern monkeys which makes the creationist cliché even more painfully ignorant.

Even the most dogmatic creationists have to admit that the attributes of an animal can be dramatically modified and guided through breeding. Humans have accelerated the process through artificial selection where we modify the traits of plants and animals through selective breeding and cause change to happen far more rapidly than natural selection. And now we have the technology to genetically modify plants and animals.

Creationists in admission to small gradual changes try to separate what they call micro-evolution and what they call macro-evolution. They claim to believe that adaptation and breeding can cause small changes, but not big changes. But if you believe in small changes, a big change is simply a cumulating of small changes. If you believe in small changes, you believe in big changes.

But these changes take a tremendously long time to happen. Creationists often demand that millions of years of evolution be demonstrated in their lifetime. It doesn’t work that way. The fossil evidence clearly shows evolution over a long period of time is what occurred on earth. Simple life forms evolving into complex life forms. In terms of time, even the so called “Cambrian Explosion” of rapid evolution was a time frame of tens of millions of years.

We now have DNA evidence which corresponds to geological evidence and fossil evidence. Some creationists are trying to classify what happened before our lifetimes as “historical science” which they say requires faith to believe in. This is absurd. If you dig into the ground and find a riverbed of lava, you can conclude an active volcano created it even though you were not there when it happened. That’s not faith, it’s evidence, common sense, and logic.

And how hypocritical for creationists to argue against knowledge of what happened before our lifetimes based on science and then claim truth in absurd myths said to have taken place before our lifetimes.
Their argument is akin to:
You can’t claim that lightning had the same causes it does now 2,500 years ago. You weren’t there.
Zeus caused lightning 2,500 years ago. We know this to be true because someone wrote it in a book.
Any modern scientific explanation for lightning requires the same amount of faith as “Zeus did it.”

But what about changes in higher classifications of species? It all comes down to small changes leading to bigger changes.

A lemur is classified as a Strepsirrhini. An African monkey is classified as a Catarrhini. Both of these sub classifications roll up to Primate. Dogs and cats belong to different sub classifications that roll up to Carnivora. When a separation of species continues to the point where significant changes in classification attributes occur, a different classification is created. Once again, small changes accumulate and eventually lead to big changes.

What is the difference between a cat and a dog which leads to different classifications or what creationists often refer to as different “kinds?” A cat has retractable claws. Dogs are pack animals. Cats are carnivores while dogs are omnivores. Cats can climb trees while dogs cannot. Dogs run down their pray, cats stalk. There are physical, dietary and behavioral differences between the two. They both have attributes that are common to a specific classification.

If a group of cats or dogs was to become isolated and over a large amount of time evolved to lose certain attributes related to its’ specific classification or gain certain attributes that were outside of its’ specific classification, a new classification would be created. A dog would not evolve into a cat nor would a cat evolve into a dog. They would eventually evolve into a new subcategory of Carnivora. And enough changes to a subcategory would lead to changes of higher categories.

So what’s the big deal? Why not allow creationists to poison science education and molest the knowledge that was won with great sacrifice by our ancestors? The issue is human problems require human solutions. The wellbeing of future generations rely on our scientific competency today. Creationists want to hold us back in scientific understanding and education at a critical time for our species to move forward."

- James Kirk Wall


arthurfoxake @ rational observations - 2 days ago

... and your point is?


rationalobservations @ Arthur Foxake • 2 days ago

"Creationism is not the alternative to Evolution - ignorance is."

Arthur remarked to me that rational observations, in spite of using a lot of words had not attempted to answer the question. One of our foreign affairs contributors, Ed Butt took up the case, wade through irrational's long winded replies and Ed reveals why Dawkins should not consude his beliefs with facts and why pompous old irrational observations is ridiculously wrong:

Ed Butt @ rationalobservations? - 2 days ago

Wow, what a long and thorough reply, must have taken you ages to cut and paste it. But you still have not answered Arthur's question, "Which came first, the enzyme or the cell?"

In my experience the awkward ones like that will stump the science worshippers every time.


rationalobservations? Ed Butt • a day ago

Ribozymes: scissors from an old world

Sophie Petit-Zeman

According to the biologist Jerome Lettvin, "Enzymes are things invented by biologists that explain things which otherwise require harder thinking." Protein catalysts that make reactions happen much faster than they otherwise would, enzymes are certainly a neat part of the biological picture, accelerating traffic on the highway along which DNA makes RNA, and RNA makes protein.

But this picture does indeed beg a bit of harder thinking. Given that enzymes are proteins, how did travels on the genetic road first get rolling? How did DNA make proteins, and indeed replicate itself, before it had made some enzymes, for which it needed, well, some enzymes?

Bit of a conundrum, that. And one that persisted until the revolutionary work of Thomas Cech and Sidney Altman in the 1980s overturned the notion of RNA as merely an intermediate in the synthesis of proteins from DNA, and unmasked RNA's own intrinsic catalytic activity.

The first breakthrough came in 1982 when Cech's University of Colorado team found an RNA in the ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila that could cleave and splice itself without any external protein or energy source. Shortly afterwards, Altman's group at Yale University found a similarly independent RNA in an enzyme called ribonuclease P in the bacteria Escherichia coli. The concept of enzymes made of RNA — called ribozymes — gained credence, and Cech and Altman shared the 1989 Nobel prize for chemistry for their work.

Not only did Cech's work severely upset received wisdom about the nature of enzymes and RNA, it also showed that introns — classically regarded as sequences of 'non-coding' genetic material that lie between coding exons in DNA and RNA — were far from junk. The Tetrahymena ribozyme is itself an intron, and it has since been shown that as well as possessing intrinsic catalytic activity, some intron sequences encode proteins that are required for the processing of DNA and RNA.

So, the present status of RNA as DNA's self-effacing servant may once have been very different. RNA appears to be a multitalented molecule; both a repository of information (genetic code) and a catalyst for protein synthesis and replication. The recognition that RNA had properties that are so central to the creation of life gave rise to the 'RNA world' hypothesis, that RNA had once been both scriptwriter and director (Fig. 1). While this idea is not without its critics, scientists, excited by this hypothesis, began to scour many organisms to look for more of these ribozyme 'relics'.


Ed Butt rationalobservations? • a day ago

"May once have been, and "appears to be"? Another nice cut and paste job demonstrating the usual scientific vagueness and hedging of bets. Have you anything definite to offer. Or better still any thoughts of your own to bring to this public discussion forum?


rationalobservations? Ed Butt • a day ago

That's science for you! It takes the evidence and provides a rational explanation for that evidence.

Unlike religion that takes confused and contradictory mythology and demands that no evidence is required in support of that mythology and all evidence that contradicts that mythology must be somehow "wrong".

How about some original 1st century originated evidence of the existence, life and times of a god-man/messiah that features in fables and legends that originate in first and oldest form in a bibles from 4th century Rome?

How about some rational evidence that supports the two different creation myths from genesis 1 and genesis 2?

1) Can you refer to any 1st century originated evidence of the life and times of one of many messiah claimants (only much later Greek scribes employed by the 4th century Romans) named "Jesus"?

2) Can you name a complete bible text that dates prior to the oldest/first 4th century Roman Codex Sinaiticus christian bible and matches any complete text within the oldest/first 4th century originated Codex Sinaiticus?

3) Are you aware of - and can you explain - the almost endless differences between the oldest/first 4th century handwritten Roman Codex Sinaiticus bible and those many diverse and significantly different versions of NT bibles that followed it?

4) Can you explain the confusion and internal contradiction, historical inaccuracies and scientific absurdity that is contained within all the many,many diverse and different versions of christian bibles today?

5) Can you explain the absence from Jewish literature of the Jewish prophesies that the god-man "Jesus" is claimed to have fulfilled exclusively within christian authored texts that only appear for the first time in the 4th century CE?

6) Can you explain why "Jesus" (according to the legends within NT bibles) fails to meet the specification of messiah that actually exists within Jewish literature and tradition?

Get back to me if you think you have evidence based answers to these evidence based questions.

(Don't bother with more debunked bunkum from your confused and internally contradictory book of nonsense and mythology.)


Ed Butt @ rationalobservations? • 21 hours ago

Why do you keep talking about religion? I'm not obsessed with religion like Dawkins is, I'm not even Christian. As for the Bible, it is, in my not so humble opinion, as big a load of drivel all all that vague, inconclusive stuff you keep cutting and pasting. And you are being irrational when you refer to it as MY book of nonsense. I have not referred to the Bible once until now so why do you suggest I have. Are you commenting on what you wanted me to reply rather than what I actually replied.

I get the impression that I am not reading rational observations but ravings of the deranged.

I will take questions on Zoroastrian Avestas, Hindu Vedas and European paganism but don't assume I'm a believer, my interest in them stems from other sources.

You know you should try to deal with that binary mindset problem to increase your credibility. Do you not have a clue how irrational it is to assume your critics are religious fanatics and creationists just because they don't defer to Dawkins as the Pontifex Maximus of the Church Of Scienceology and prophet of athesm.

And you still haven't answered the original question. Which came first, the enzyme or the cell? Unless you can give us facts rather than might and possibly I suggest you cling to your belief and respect the right of the God Squad to hold theirs.

Me? I'll just carry on being a wind up merchant, I enjoy it.


Rational Observations @ Ed Butt

Carry on trolling and asking meaningless questions if that makes you happy.


Ed Butt

Carry on being an irrational bigot if that's what makes you happy.

But here's something that might help you understand why evolution does not explain the origins of life. Read it, don't comment on what you think it ought to say.
http://insciences.org/article.php?article_id=5628
http://www.livescience.com/3214-life-created-lab.html
You will learn, if you have the humility to do so, that there is in fact NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that true living organisms can come into being without the presence of enzymes.

So which came first, the enzyme or the cell?

That is of course a meaningless question only in the sense that you cannot understand its meaning. Now you troll off and stop disrupting the discussions of intelligent and open minded people.


Then Arthur plunges back into the fray:

Arthur @ Foxake rationalobservations? 3 hours ago

That's not an intelligent response. Creationism and evolution are not opposites. Evolution deals with the development of species from earlier, usually less advanced species. Creationism is a belief system dealing with origins of the universe, origins of life etc.
The universe did not evolve, it happened. According to one rather tongue in cheek theory from physicist John Gribben, the creators might have been a bunch of extra terrestrial engineers. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/7972538/Are-we-living-in-a-designer-universe.html
I don't agree or disagree with him, unlike you my mind is not closed to ideas so I find his theory interesting and entertaining, and actually not capable of being falsified. Therefore I accept Gribben's designer universe as possible but improbable.
You on the other hand (I've read you other comments in this thread) seem to think there is only one possible kind of creation act, the one where The God Of Abraham snaps his fingers and says, "Let there be stuff." And suddenly where there was nothing, there is stuff. Absolute rubbish of course, but Big Bang theory asks us to believe a similar thing.

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Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Cluedo: It Was Gordon Brown In The Surgery With A Spreadsheet.




Gordon Brown - Prime Minister from The Dark Side (Image source)

Not so long ago Machiavelli blog commented on the planned closures of A & E units and specialist children's facilities as part of the Governments drove to "make the NHS more efficient and give patients more choice." We thought nothing the Department of Health And Bean Counting could do would leave us more gobsmacked than a blatant attack on sick children.

Now we learn that in the interests of efficiency (i.e. saving a few quid) people recovering from major operations will not routinely have follow up appointments with the consultants who treated them but will be referred to their G.P.s
Its true that many follow up appointments are routine and do not require the involvement of a consultant. This is why (and I speak from experience) most follow up appointments at hospitals are conducted by registrars and junior doctors.

While not having attained the highest level these doctors will be specialists in their field and will have daily briefings with their supervisors during which concerns can be raised.

Can we really believe that a G.P. no matter how competent and committed can deal with orthopaedic, cardio-vascular, neurological and oncological cases all in the same day. And if that were realistic, are G.Ps not under enough pressure already from the workload imposed by ever more demanding patients and an implacable bureaucracy?

The Government counters all logical arguments by citing cost, efficiency and "the widening of patients choice" as its justifications. What is really going on however is the withdrawal of an important layer of patient care and an important learning process from the next generation of doctors.

And this LABOUR government led by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the man who murdered the British economy (in the study, with a spreadsheet) has the gall to tell us they are doing us a favour by making it possible for us to choose in which dirty, cash strapped hospital we get third rate care from inadequately trained staff. And the most scary thing of all about it is thirty per cent of the electorate would still vote for them.

More Murder and Mayhem

A Lament For The World