Richard Dawkin
Just about to buy a ticket to the Atheist convention in Melbourne and Richard Dawkins in on the cards for Sunday evening.
I’ve always been in two minds about the guy, on one hand he has done more than any other person for the Atheist movement, on the other hand his retoric is filled with emotion and anger.
He often makes connections between people going to church on a Sunday morning to suicide bombers taking their lives in the name of their god; this is like connecting stem cell research for the purpose of furthering research into cures for parkinsons etc. to “playing god” as some skeptics have done in the past (please note the spelling of skeptic).
Fighting fire with fire may not be the best strategy when dealing with the issue relating to religion. As scientists, I believe they should be held to a higher ethical standard, following the scientific method in both research and debate.
Anyway, I’m still going.
No commentsFrom Facebook
By Trish
Okay:
Do i sound like im trying to bible bash you with my discussion? because i fully dont intend too. I do how ever enjoy discussion that does help me open up my understanding of other peoples point of view. sorry if ive offended you but those questions were meant for my benefit, and not to “try to lead you to the light”
…
I’m just the right amount of anti-social
No commentsScientific vs Pseudo-Scientific debate
Points:
Pseudo Scientists aren’t bound by facts
Fact that evidence is on science’s side doesn’t help, facts are restrictive
Give the public the impression that Science needs to, or should defend itself against pseudoscientists
Also gives the impression that Science and PseudoScience are on the same level.
Pulls science down to Pseudoscience’s level.
Generally Pseudo Scientist are better at roderick than scientists, it’s a professional requirement when swindling money.
The birth of Sophie, you’ve been very naughty…
The inducement was planned at 3pm on Tuesday but when the doctor inspected Trish, she was naturally dilated 4cm, this was enough to suggest things may happen naturally, which is always better, for baby and mother. So we got sent home and told to come back at 7 am. Went to sleep at midnight, got woken up at 2 am because Trish had massive cramps, and she had another show, apparently you can have more than one mucus plug.
We got to the hospital about 3 am and call the doctor, who planned to come in at 7 am anyway so we waiting it out.
The contractions were about 10 mins apart and not that strong, this went on for many hours until the doctor arrived at 9:30 am, two hours after he was supposed to come in. He broke Trish’s waters using the “grabber”, which was basically the device Arny uses in Total recall to pull that tracking device out of his nose. In her waters he discovered the baby had pooped, and therefore will need to be birthed as quickly as possible, so he was going to come back at noon.
Trish, after having many big contractions, decided to get an epidural. An epidural works on about 90% of people, Trish is a part of the 10% it doesn’t work on. So Trish had to rely on Nitris Oxide, which can very quickly make you sick; it’s the same sorta sick you feel on a rollercoaster, I know, I tried some.
After many hours of very intense labour cramps, the babies head still hadn’t dropped into the, i don’t know what you call it, maybe birthing cavity? Anyway, baby wasn’t where she was supposed to be, so forceps we’re decided upon, which required a small cut to be made, forceps were put in, baby comes out, I cry, but lets not dwell on this idea.
Next Trish tells the doctor, who’s currently stitching the cut up and covered in blood, that she feel lightheaded, tunneling vision and ringing in her ears, basically Trish is loosing blood pressure, her readings go from a normal 120/80 to a 62/42, which means a code blue.
At this time, nurses rush in from all directions, checking pulses, preparing drips, check response levels, all this whilst I’m holding her hand and asking her questions like who she is, and where she is, just trying to keep her conscious. Her lips turn blue, and I start to cry again, thinking she’s about to die, I could see a look in some of the nurses eyes telling me that there is a possibility.
But luckily, the drip brings her around, her colour comes back and baby’s made it to the breast for her first feed. Is this the end? I think not.
Trish has had sooo much gas, and lost so much blood that she begin to pass out again, this time the nurses call for two bags of blood, this also eventually brings her around. But is this the end? Well yes, it is.
Done.
1 commentPregnancy
I heard this recently, and it makes complete sense; the brain goes back over the memories after child birth and dulls them. Now I only heard of this, I cannot find any scientific documentation after doing extensive research (2 google searches). There is no reason behind this, but the evolutionary benefit can be seen when a mother is considering additional children.
If she remembers it being very, very unpleasant, she may not choose to do it again, therefore only having one offspring.
If her brain dulled the memory of the pain, and made it less memorable, perhaps the likeliness of more than one offspring would become more attractive.
As you can see, the genetic line with the second brain type would start to dominate the gene pool.
This is a perfect example of random mutations becoming advantageous, ie. natural selection.
A way this could happen – something similar to a beta blocker, which is used on social anxiety and PTSD patients.
Sorry the post seems rather random, it’s not really, I’m having a baby tomorrow.
No commentsThings I must do before dying
1. Visit a volcano
2. Visit Chernobyl”
3. Get a tour through a nuclear power plant
4. Watch a NASA space launch
5. Ride of Richard Bransons “Virgin Gallactic”
6. See my daughter grow up, i.e. not die before then
7. Visit Grand Canyon
8. Finish studying a undergraduate degree
Time to go back
It’s time to go back. At the moment i’m either angry, jealous, paranoid, mean, vacant or spiteful. I’ve even lost my edge, if i ever had one, that I thought i lost on them. I’d rather be who I was than who I am now. I can’t talk to my friends, things make less sense when translated from my brain to my mouth, I can’t find anything that makes me feel anymore. Will probably have to take an afternoon off sometime this week to get that sorted. It needs to be sorted.
No commentsMoral .vs. Ethics
Moral – Prohibition of behaviour
Ethic – Behavioural guideline
Morals are usually used to defend or condemn someone elses’ behaviour.
Ethics are a standard of behaviour that a group of people have decided to abide by.
Note about me:
One other thing. Your dad is a fucking prick. He is a moody, unconciously selfish brat who farts in bed and says things or forgets some things that can really hurt. Remember this and you should get on well. He does have a heart, and you’ll be surprised at how much he can make you laugh. It’s just a struggle to see that side sometimes. He is still in fake denial about all this, meaning you may sometimes hear him say ‘where’d that baby come from?’ or ’since when where you pregnant’, that’s the dark sense of humor in him. I don’t know how to really deal with it and there is no making it go away, because that’s him. If I were you I’d throw up on him as much as I can to get a few in, it’s hard to stay mad at a baby. He also likes bacon so if you could figure out how to smell like bacon it could help your cause. It could also lead to a gruesome, cannibalistic nightmare but I don’t think he does people meat.
Not sure whether to be flattered or annoyed.
No commentsTrain ride
I’ve always felt weird about buttocks. Their round, protruding shape, their lack of usefulness. Today was horrible. The train was packed, I was close enough to smell peoples’ breath. And then, out of nowhere, someone placed their butt on my thigh. I could feel their cheeks through their thin, worker robot pants, not only that, their cheeks were split by my thigh. I was surrounded on all sides, unable to remove my leg from their depths. I considered briefly severing the leg and hobbling away. In the end I decided to lurch forward, as if being pushed from behind, freeing my leg from their grasp.
No commentsI hate…
People who unnecessarily fuck around with written english.
Prime example being “Congratumalations” or “I Wub U”, often used on online forum to add cuteness to a post. Well i got news for you, the only thing it does is add stupid. It’d be cute if it were a 4 year old, but you’re not, you’re a fat ugly 30-something with an annoying demeanor.
Fuck you.
No comments“Fair go”
I’m really annoyed by this saying. It implies that someone should be get something they obviously don’t deserve. If they deserved it, they’d have the opportunity. It’s a shameless appeal to peoples’ Australian heritage, if you want to call it that.
1 commentWhat are you thinking/feeling?
The worst question that can come out of someone’s mouth. It shows laziness. You should have to figure that sort of stuff out. It’s a part of being human. Part of having relationship/friendships. It’s cheating.
2 commentsThe female orgasm!
What is the evolutionary benefit of the female orgasm?
It has been thought in the past that it associated with couple bonding and also has been believed to assist in sperm retention, or famously coined as “sperm suck-up”.
Where more likely it is the result of identical embriotic development in the womb upto a certain point. Females and males deviate sometime after the physical development has pretty much finished. The same argument can be put forth for the male nipple. Where males can, in theory, lactate if given vital hormones at pivital development stages, ie. pubity.
1 commentIrreducible complexity
Not sure if i’ve touched on this before, but I’d like to explore one of the arguments against evolution, Irreducible complexity.
It’s the theory that some structures in nature are irreducibly complex, meaning that if any one part of a complex system were to be removed, it would no longer function as a system. An example of this is the fergellum. The fergellum is a structure that exists in nature that is made up of numerous parts, if any of these parts were to be removed, it would no longer work as it’s “Intended”. The main fault with this theory is that it assumes evolution and associated systems have a purpose in mind. It also assumes that a system was never meant to work for any other purpose. A good analogy is a stone archway. An archway woulnd’t stand up if you removed any of the numerous parts that make it up, and from the view of the finished product, it would seem that it’s impossible to construct. Yet in reality, it’s constructed with the assistance of a scaffold. In the same way that an archway uses a scaffold, complex biological systems can also be supported by a support structure, which throughout time is no longer needed, ie. no selective pressure.
No commentsMum
“You and your brother are very proud of your Thai background these days huh? Kinda like your brother changing his name”.
Now there’s two issues here:
1. She should probably refrain from ever bringing up my brother changing his name back to it’s original form, this reminds me of Aaron’s wedding, and my parents’ behaviour at said wedding…Well let me just say i’ve never in my life been so embarrassed for my family. EVERYONE knew what was going on. Aaron, Me, Sarah, Sarah’s parents, the whole bridal party, everyone that really mattered… we were still making our impressions for fuck’s sake, and this hurt them. Why on earth would Mum feel so protective of a name she pretty much acosted Aaron into doing, it means very little to anyone, or so i thought… The name that was inserted to hide Aaron’s Thai name was Taylor, a very white, honky name, the name of someone who my mum thought Aaron liked (where in fact he was a fat turd). Why did she feel betrayed? Did she think she was doing Aaron a favour by supporting his self loathing over his background, because that’s what i think it was due to, a lot of my behaviour was due to that.
2. It’s not about being proud of my Thai background, it’s about having a Thai background… I’m half Thai, that’s it, as much as i used to not want to be, i was… I am. There’s no denying anymore, no hiding it, fuck it, it’s there. I think finally at 26 years, i’m finally coming to terms with it. And to celebrate this, i’m getting a tattoo, as silly as my “mum” thinks it is.
I wish i could have said something, but for reason i refuse to state, i can’t. Not now, not ever.
1 commentIdentity
I have been wondering something, something loosely based on a dream i’ve been having recently.
If i said to you, point at “Liam”, you’d point in my general direction… what about my general direction is “Liam”? Is it the collection of body parts that make up me? Is it the arrangement of facial features that makes up my face? Are you pointing to where you think my “mind/soul/being” is located? If i cut off a leg it place it on the other side of the room, where am i now? am i the leg without a body, or the body without the leg? what part that’s left makes me still me? What if i further more remove the rest of my limbs, and place them with my leg, so now you have my limbs in one area, and my torso and head in another, where am i now? Are you still pointing to where my face is? my mind is? what if i were to decapitate myself and place my head in ANOTHER section of the room, now where am i? are you going to base your perception of me on a percentage? 40% of me here, 45% of me there and 5% over there, what if the 5% consisted just of my head, is it me? or innate pieces of meat that used to be me?
No commentsWhich way now?
I’ve taken note of how my friends have treated people they don’t like, i’m starting to receive this sort of behaviour now. Too often people don’t express how they feel about another, or lack of feeling, or lack of friendship or whatever. It’s weak. It’s not doing the other party any good. How are they supposed to discover what is appropriate and friend worthy behaviour when there is no one there willing to tell them when they’ve gone astray. Is it time for me to move on? Ever since i’ve gotten back from Canada i’ve felt out of place. I didn’t feel “in place” over there, neither here. I don’t feel like i can fit in anywhere atm. I wonder if everyone else is just at a different place than myself, a different stage of their lives. Worse part is that i can’t figure out whether or not this is real. Don’t get me wrong, it feels real, but i know, up there, that it could be me distorting reality with my paranoia.
5 comments