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It’s funny how transient an experience the web is especially in comparison to books. Thoughts about Creationism v Darwinism have been in my mind recently and sitting in my living room I happen to come across a copy of the Darwin Awards book that I had forgot that I owned.

The book was a spin off from the website which I haven’t visited in years and probably never would have ever again had I not seen the book. The site is as crudely designed as it ever was and in these days of pretty template based sites by the bucketload it is positively archaic looking. It looks to be updated still although I’m not sure how often it is.

It was a cult thing amongst the internet community that I was a part of in the late 90s but it faded away from my sphere and until now it’s almost like it didn’t exist until rediscovered the book. Do people still visit regularly? Do people still happen across it following links from elsewhere having never known of its existence?

Tags: books

A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) 3rd President of the United States

Unfortunately in the case of ID cards the rebellion was too little (BBC News).

So I turn to the words of Thomas Jeffereson’s predecessor.

Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right… and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean the characters and conduct of their rulers.

John Adams (1735-1826) 2nd President of the United States

We can only hope that the unelected House of Lords are more questioning of the ID card bill than the majority of the Labour Party MPs in the House of Commons. The Government’s claims that their ID card proposal will solve many serious problems facing our society simply do not stand up under analysis.

Tags: ID cards

P3050011
Originally uploaded by electricinca.

My dog Jasper died, he was 12 years old.

Can’t I beat level 11 of TwinSpin?

Basically it boils down to “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.”

The following quotes are from Why the Court Should Hear Hamdan by David H. Remes an article written for The Blog of the American Constitution Society

The United States in fact adopted the Geneva Conventions to protect American soldiers captured in battle. As Secretary of State John Foster Dulles stated, America’s participation in the conventions was needed “to enable us to invoke them for the protection of our nationals.” Our consistent application of the Conventions to all enemies – from signatory states to Somali warlords – has saved untold numbers of American soldiers from torture and death.

When North Vietnam insisted that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to American POWs because they were “pirates,” President Nixon demanded – and had the moral authority to demand – that Hanoi apply them. On the 50th anniversary of the Conventions, Senator John McCain stated that he and his fellow POWs would have fared “a lot worse” without the Geneva Conventions’ protections against “the cruel excesses of war.”

The decision to deny the rights under the Geneva convention of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who’s accused of conspiring with Al Qaeda, and other foreign nationals by President Bush has far reaching implications and in doing so he has undermined the well-being of US soldiers around the world.

Sometimes it is better to never learn the truth, knowledge can never be unlearned once the Genie is out of the bottle.

The bottled genie in this case being Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget.

I know. I brought on myself, but I just couldn’t resist taking a peek.

BBC News: Oldest noodles unearthed in China

The remains of the world’s oldest noodles have been unearthed in China.

The 50cm-long, yellow strands were found in a pot that had probably been buried during a catastrophic flood.

Radiocarbon dating of the material taken from the Lajia archaeological site on the Yellow River indicates the food was about 4,000 years old.

Controversially if these are remnants of the Flying Spaghetti Monster during his creation of the Earth then the date of creation would be some 2000 years later than that accepted by many creationists as calculated by James Ussher (January 4, 1581–March 21, 1656), Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625–1656 and a prolific religious scholar who most famously published a chronology which dated creation from 4004 BC.

It seems clear to me that in our modern times with greater archaeologically knowledge and technology for dating of items that evidence would suggest the Earth is much younger than even the Creationists believe.

As our date is later than theirs I believe that makes us the winners so Spaghetti-Monsterism triumphs.

Tags: religion

Frankly it looks like England don’t based on the first half of tonight’s match against Poland. He might well be the best English player but the team seems much more balanced without him in it.

Not only that but the movement has been excellent as has the movement of the ball and the possession of it with the structured passing to build up the pressure on the opposition.

This is the England team performance we should have been seeing throughout the qualifiers not now that we are in a position of already having qualified. Perhaps the relative easy group that we found ourselves in was of detriment to the team performance as I think the team only truly shines when the pressure is really on against a difficult opponent.

Conversely now having qualified the pressure is off a bit so the team can relax and this also allows the team to play it’s best now we are playing for the honour of topping the group against the only truly worthy rivals in the group.

Tags: sport

At last something to get your teeth into in the Intelligent Design debate some actual scientific evidence which lends credence to the theory. This experiment into the creation of the previously unobserved species Noodleous doubleous certainly has me convinced. The estimated probability of this spontaneous generation event is too low to be explained by thermodynamics and therefore apparently represents intelligent design.

I think the dissection is particularly illuminating.

Please note that as the experiment involves the extremely hazardous substance Dihydrogen Monoxide it should not be carried out at home by anybody other than trained professionals.

Whilst we are in the mood for learning why not check out the fun to be had at Sobics School. Damn those little pieces of wall, I can see they will be the bane of my life for days to come.

Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link is available to download free under a Creative Commons license.

This first collection by award-winning author Kelly Link, takes fairy tales and cautionary tales, dictators and extraterrestrials, amnesiacs and honeymooners, revenants and readers alike, on a voyage into new, strange, and wonderful territory.

Tags: books, creative commons