DHMO

While you wait for my postings about Australia (totally cool new blogger feature: video posting!), check this out: www.dhmo.org BAN IT!

Testing the vid function, a couplde of nice cars I saw at the Millau viaduct in July.



Need to work on layouts.

Je suis a St Gapour!

Just thought I would do this, because I can...

It's 7:15 am and I'm posting this from the free internet in Changi Airport, Singapour, which totally rocks. Of course I could be faking this, so you'll just have to trust me.

Only get to do this once in a lifetime I guess. Well, twice because I can do it again on the way back. Oh, didn't I mention this is a trip to Australia?! And no I don't fear that I've given away the fact that my house will be empty this whole time, because it won't be.

see www.intervac.com if you're curious.

Everyone do the raindance!

UPDATE: http://www.randi.org/jr/2007-06/061507.html#i2



Last week, James Randi reported that the Australian Prime Minister called for the whole country, in the face of a very serious drought the country is having, to "literally and without any irony, pray for rain over the next six to eight weeks."

Today on the BBC there is a news story about how six people have been confirmed deceased and two more are still missing after a huge storm has hit the east coast of Australia.

"This is the worst storm and the worst damage our electricity network has seen for more than 30 years," EnergyAustralia executive general manager Geoff Lilliss was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

I'm not entirely sure this is what Mr Howard had in mind... Maybe too many people prayed and God overcompensated? Or perhaps He got grouchy because all the voices in His Holy Head woke Him up. He is a vengeful god after all.

Or maybe, just maybe, -now, hold on to yourselves, this is going to be quite a shocking new idea here- maybe... God is imaginary and weather follows the Second Law of Thermodynamics which states: "shit happens".

Watch this space in case Mr Randi uses my information in a future Swift.

Randi's Swift for June 1, 2007: http://www.randi.org/jr/2007-06/060107.html

The BBC news story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6736687.stm

Translation work

I've begun pimping my bilingual self out on YouTube with this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjbOEAg2ZsM

Within an hour it had 2 honours, now it's up to 6 including #2 top rated in French today, the first one being another copy of the same video without the subtitles. The reason for the success is the fame of the original video I subtitled, which is by CapnOAwesome, who has like 5000 subscribers. He faved my version and put it in his video log, so it's going to get quite a bit of attention. The feedback so far has been great.

Might start doing this a lot, it's fun and easy and gets me some attention :p

Oh and apologies for the horrendous name-dropping, but this guy's feature video is of him preaching the Word of the Flying Spaghetti Monster after all, so he gets my vote just from that ^^

Parlay Franssay nay pa fassil

I'm quite impressed:

What you think you know.

The short-enough-to-read-immediately article here is very good at explaining why psychologists are the professional group least likely to believe in ghosts, amongst other things (if you don't understand the connection, maybe it's you!).

I apply the same sort of thing to fairies, God, and geography.

French elections

I realised I could just post my comments from the varioous forums I'm on as content for this blog, because they're the whole reason why I dried up here in the first place!

"By the way, the exit polls (non-official, but usually very reliable) gave:
- Sarkozy 30%
- Royal 25%
(these first two are through to the second round in a few weeks' time)
- Bayrou 18%
- Le Pen 11%
- all other candidates (all 8 of them) 16%

The absolute official report, which is expected to confirm these, is published on the evening of the 25th April.

It was the biggest turn-out for an election since 1981, with 84% of registered voters participating.
he good news is more than half the voters voted for the two candidates that got through ((30+25)>50), unlike in 2002 when there had been 16 candidates andthe top two only got like 35% of a poor turn-out between them.

Its expected that Sarkozy will get Le Pen's votes, Royal will get the 3 communist parties' and other socailist-ish's votes, and it'll all come down to how Bayrou's voters go.

(Anyone looking for the absolute best figures should check the french government's webpage.)"

Multilinguism at its best

Here's the speech Chris and Greg made to present themselves and our school to the other participants to Euroscola!

Theirs was waaaaaaay better than any of the others.

Hardly surprising...

Despite what his predecessor, the evil atheist John-Paul II, said, it seems Pope Benedict XVI ("Paparazzi" as he's known to the German press) has changed official Vatican policy about yet another thing: the theory of evolution by natural selection as a means to explain biodervsity, is no longer valid, apparently. James Randi reports and comments on the quotes here.

I suppose there's really no point in suggesting to him the other "alternative" to evolution, that is to say Flying Spaghetti Monster creationism.

FSM v IPU

Whenever you here of a holy war and any nobility such a cause might have, remember this atrocity.




My faith is wavering now,
The artists take their bow
I really don't know how
I'm to make up my mind
How can everyone be so blind?


Reminds me of Tenacious D.


Should probably post some original content one of these days...

KRK-SXB

The music we made...



I'm particularly proud of moment 2:00 and moment 5:21.

I had been planning to write a bit of a commentary for this, but I think that would spoil it a bit. If anyone gets round to asking for any specific details I'm sure I'll give them.

Stupider

Nope... that sort of thing is serious sometimes:
link

ffs!
"A scientist doesn't have to be wearing a labcoat."
Then why has he got a globe and sciency-looking ight behind him?

Stupid

I really, really hope this is a joke:
link


But I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't.

Empirialism

We-hay, seems I've started expanding my web presence. Thinking of starting up VLogging on YouTube like a hell of a lot of other bored adolescents with a webcam ranting and stuff, hopefully with a smidgen of originality. I've started getting back to www.skepticforum.com, which is good for morale (someone actually missed me there!). How sad this all is, but then a lot about my situation is, so in fact none of it is. ha! Aaaaaanyway found this in a post and was authorised to move it here, I liked it, though I'd share (how sickening):

Catholic Protestant
Muslim and Jews
Look at each other
With frightening views
What are we doing
This isn't God's plan
Meant to be brothers
Our family of man
Seems to be something
That gets in the way
Confusing ours minds
From what his words say
Love one another
The gist of his book
No matter the language
Nor how it may look
I've missed something
I don't understand
WHO is it then
If it isn't God's hand
Who darkens dreams
With hatred and fear
Clouding our vision
Till nothing is clear
Sharpens our rage
At the point of a knife
Who sends the misguided
To cause loss of life
Who wants the world
To tremble and shake
Who takes innocent
Lives in his wake
Who breaks a spirit
Then fills it with hate
Demonic decisions
Sealing their fate
Who takes a man
And warps his soul
Death and destruction
His devious goal
Who turns souls black
With power or greed
Who preaches hate
Planting the seed
For the slaughter of others
But who do we blame
The ultimate evil
It's done in God's name

M@C

Does this make sense to you?

New Agers get on my nerves, because I consider it an insult to my intelligence that they would have me take them seriously. An example from today's JREF Swift:

Q: What happens when you die, Deepak?

Chopra: What happens when you die, is you return to where you always are. If you realize right now that there's no such thing as a person, you'll be all set.

Q: What do you mean, I'll be all set?

Chopra: Then if you shift your identity to that consciousness that is differentiating as observer and observant, you'll know there's nothing to fear.

Q: You have no fear of death.

Chopra: No Sir! Why? Because I don't exist in the first place!

Q: Can you get reincarnated as a soul?

Chopra: [Sighs] Wisps of memory and threads of desire, which are specks of information, latch onto specks of consciousness and show up as recycled human beings. But in the bigger picture, the observer, the observed, the process of observation, is a single reality.

Q: So... Deepak Chopra, as I know him [questioner taps the sitting Chopra solidly on the knee for effect] my friend Chopra... doesn't exist?

Chopra: A transient behavior of... the total universe.

Deepak Chopra... waste of space.
It's all playing on words generally associated with a bit of quantum physics, "the observer, the observed", without ever actually saying anything.
Metatwaddle like this is dangerous, because people start believing they're thinking when in fact, it's all just "quack, quack, quack".
This is why critical thinking and education are important.

Also, from a simpler linguistics point of view, look at "[sighs]" when the word "soul" is metnioned. Here is the mark of someone who might actually be clever and has realised that there really is no such thing, and reckons that he has to go further with the weirdness to convince his fans that what he's got is the end-product of a long chain of reasoning.
Unless, of course, he's really talking major bollocks completely detached from any form of even (slightly) reasonable spirituality.

Blasphemy Challenge Blasphemy

It's becoming increasingly popular of late, and I've agreed to be swept away by it, because it is jolly important, after all: God. Religion.
There's a huge list of different issues about this, from people who think the Bible is true because it says so in the Bible, and that any other claimed Holy Book is just a pack of lies because it isn't their Holy Book, to atheists debating just how much damage religion is doing. I wouldn't anyone to take my word for it, because that's not how this freethinking thing works. Just Google "Richard Dawkins", "James Randi", "Skeptic", "Rational Response", stuff like that. YouTube is overflowing with stuff.
So as I said I want to take part. Because my bullshit-meter has been ringing for far too long now and I want to vent some anger. Na! and, while we're on the subject, Cl! too.
OK so the one I want to point out this time is the Blasphemy Challenge: YouTube yourself denying the power and existence of the Holy Ghost, thus committing the only unforgiveable sin in Christianity (and get a free DVD! price-one soul). Pretty silly, but irritating enough to have ellicited a response in the form of Challenge Blasphemy (clever play on words there you see!), where they ask you to YouTube yourself saying you confess Jesus.

Now, all other idiocy aside, I don't see where the conflict is. Clearly, the upset Christians of Challenge Blasphemy didn't read the Blasphemy Challenge properly. Where is the contradiction in denying the Holy Ghost and accepting Jesus? (We'll ignore the 3=1 mess for purposes of simplicity.) Protestants do it all the time (apparently). A but then the Protestants are going to Hell along with the atheists. Unless it's the Catholics.

I almost feel sorry for Deists now...

Bohemianly Rhapsodic

Last night I went to see One Night of Queen.
This is a show by Gary Mullen & The Works, whose job it is to be Queen. They are very good at what they do.
Gary Mullen who does Freddie Mercury won Stars in Their Eyes a while back for this very act, and it's hardly surprising.
They did all the big songs, of course, most of which the audience- being French- didn't know the words to. Ah but no big deal, for I was in the front row. Yes, the front row, the row at the front.
That one.
It was at the Palais de la Musique et des Congrès, where I had previously seen The Musical Box do two Genesis shows, Selling England By The Pound and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.
The acoustics in the concert room are awesome. (Especially in the front row.)
At the break (quite un-rock'n'roll, but whatever) I had my first beer since the end of September. I gave myself a break, because no-one else will (at least that's the impression I get sometimes). Plus it was a rock show, the rules don't apply. ¬¬
Did a bit of a Wayne-and-Garth during Bohemian Rhapsody, which still aches, because I'm out of practise (again since late September, hm- all these things seem related...?!).
Being a drummer I recognised We Will Rock You three seconds before anyone else (trust me).

It was interesting to see the range of people who turned up. Most were old farts, but I saw several evil death metal sweatshirts around, such as Cannibal Corpse, Manowar, and Punish Yourself. But there were also kiddies, too maybe 7 or 8 years old. Good to see them damaging their ears already...

On the whole a good boost for morale, which is just what I need right now.

Life sucks, but who said that was a bad thing?

Astronomy 101

This clip shows that even in France, there are many misinformed people:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8493010508114425938

Ignorance is not criminal in itself (the pursuit of ignorance is something else), so there is nothing to forgive here. But what is most shocking is the lack of some very basic education. Given something like that, it's hardly surprising what other rubbish people about skyrocks.

This reminds me of something Wittgenstein is reported to have said (I heard it from Dawkins):
Wittgenstein is having a discussion with a friend who says
"Is it not to be expected that people think the Sun is in orbit round the Earth rather than the other way around? After all, that's what it looks like."
To which Wittgenstein replied:
"But what it look like if it were the other way around? After all, it is the other way around."

That's it for the weekend, had planned more (in fact there's already something started) but I went out yesterday evening so be pleased about that instead!

Backpressure

Turns out people actually read this thing... Surprising.
Well this is for them, the naggers, who actually got round to telling me for real (and not via just posting whih I've arbitrarilry decided is going to be paradoxically better - long live adverbs!).
So now I know. Well, here goes again.
I've got a long time to catch up...

The Good, The Bad & The Queen

Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) and Paul Simonon (The Clash)... in the same band... wow.