Subjects Of Interest

The psychology of cooling

2009-01-29T16:54:00.001+11:00

Certain people (you know who you are) have a weird approach to heating and cooling their homes.

On a cold day, they'll heat the room to, let's say, 21 degrees; then on a hot day, they'll cool the room to 16 degrees.

I don't get it.

A new definition for the soul is required

2009-01-27T10:22:00.008+11:00

A question for the spiritual people out there. What is the soul?

Before you answer please be aware of this -

We know that the mind is what the brain does. Our personalities which are mainly herditary are managed in the brain. Our memories are stored in the brain. We know that brain damage can effect personality, memory and IQ. We can say now with confidence that the brain does not require anything more than what we can measure for it to work (or not work).

We also know that the terms 'energy' and 'force' are quantifiable and measurable terms in science. We know that the soul is not something that can be measured or tested in any way and therefore those terms are not appropriate to use.

Given all these things, where does the soul sit? What does it do? Given it is not required by our brains to function and make us who we are, what is the definition of a soul? Where is the new gap it fits now that we have filled so many previous gaps with knowledge?

We so want to fill our lives with magic and wonder that we make up these terms which are simple and comforting to help explain what we dont know. But when we do this we miss the real mystery, the real magic.......... our brains.

You know what you believe, why not find out what the experts who actually study this stuff know.

Here are some recommended readings and listenings -
The Brain Science Podcast
Genome & Nature Via Nurture by Matt Ridley
How The Mind Works & The Blank Slate by Stephen Pinker
http://www.ted.com/
The Mechanism Of Mind by Edward de Bono
http://brainrules.net/

Where do we get our morals from?

2009-01-20T19:19:00.003+11:00

I will get to that soon. But this first.

It is a true joy to know that as a father I will be able to ensure my child can grow up unencumbered by dogma. I didn't find religion until my early teens so I went through those precious early years minus the brainwashing. Perhaps this is the reason I was prepared to question what I was being told, particularly at the Christian camp I attended twice a year. Mill Valley Ranch (which still runs today) was devastatingly successful at turning heathens into good Christian soldiers. It was very appealing to an impressionable and confused kid with divorced parents and steps entering the scene. And while the experience was only positive for me at the time it never quite satisfied me. I have always been inquisitive (a trait that so many secularists seem to share) and would ask myself and others a lot of questions that rarely got answered. And even from a young age I could tell when an answer was well rehearsed.

And so I moved on to other areas of spirituality. But that's for another day.

Instead I will close this anti-sermon with a counter punch. Traditions such as family time, community celebrations and games, breaking bread, joining together to help someone less fortunate, working together towards a common goal. All these wonderful facets to humanity were here long before religion and will be with us as long as we survive as a species. They are inherent traits built in us all. They do not have to be nurtured each generation because they are already written into the true book of life, our DNA. So the next time someone asks you where do you get your morals from, tell them the answer is within. Wink wink.

What a disturbing species we can be.

2009-01-20T11:08:00.004+11:00

No this is not a photo of a drowning child being saved by passers by.

This disturbing photo is of a boy (wrongly captioned as Russian Orthodox, how can a child possibly choose a religion?) being plunged into freezing waters in celebration of the Epiphany holiday in St. Petersburg. It is difficult looking at this poor child's face. His parents might understand the tradition but to this child it would be a traumatic and frightening assault.

I find it difficult to comprehend how this child's parents can view this as a positive action. It is one of the many deplorable ways that religion enslaves minds, even surpassing out natural instincts of protecting our children from harm.

Indoctrinating children makes it proof positive that religion is a man made tradition that is mostly maintained by coercion and fear. Fear of hell and fear of being shunned by family and the community if they dare to think for themselves.

Epiphany is a Christian feast day which celebrates the revelation of God in human form in the person of Jesus Christ. Eastern Christians commemorate the baptism of Jesus by dumping stupid people in cold water.

Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show

2009-01-19T11:26:00.002+11:00

I saw episode one some time ago and in the intervening time its popularity has soared. Here is episode 2 - 'Chief Itchy Balls' for your enjoyment. Dont forget to see episode 1 - 'Lick Poop'.

Vitamin water - what utter bullcrap

2009-01-16T11:30:00.005+11:00

From The Age online

The Coca-Cola Company is being sued for making "deceptive and unsubstantiated claims" about its VitaminWater line of beverages, which it touts as healthy alternatives to sodas, lawyers for the plaintiff said on Thursday.

Its good to see someone taking a stand on what is nothing more than sugar water. Lets hope it sends a message to other companies that sell similar shit. You just cant go a day in this western world without being presented with more examples of manipulation and misrepresentation. I worry for the younger ones who have copped this kind of sophisticated selling since they were wee bairns.

Something all of us can do is send letters of complaint when you see a product being sold that is clearly misrepresenting its real worth.

Constant vigilance people.

Useless debate over hands free phones

2009-01-15T14:03:00.003+11:00

I see there is some debate on whether hands free phones should be banned from being used by people driving.

As far as im concerned there is no debate and frankly I dont see where the argument lies. It is physically impossible for our brains to be focussed on more than one task at a time. Phones are particularly bad because the brain also creates an image of the person you are talking to, taking up more of your brain power. It also take about a second for the brain to switch between tasks. Which by the way is why people cant react and brake in time.

Whether you hold it or not makes absolutely no difference in where your attention is sitting as opposed to where you are sitting.

An Aussie chips in for the miracle cause

2009-01-09T14:01:00.007+11:00

An article from the Mercury shows farmer Ernie Crouch (what an Aussie name) has grown a spud that looks like a happy little fat fellow.

Its a great feel good story, a funny little diversion from the usual depressing stuff we get in the news.

However this did make me think a bit about what would have happened if the potato was a bit thinner and looked like it had long hair. I have no doubt that there would be many Christians out there claiming this poor little spud as being likened to the Virgin Mary or Jesus Christ. Thousands of people would be heading down to Tasmania to poor Ernie's farm to start praying to the holy (not holey) potato.

If you think i am being far fetched just do a simple google search. Here is the first article i got in the results. Christs image found on a kitchen cabinet.

Or how about a doggy door?Or .........................

What about INSIDE another potato!

Praise the spud.

SOI's Album Of The Year - Bon Iver

2009-01-09T10:33:00.005+11:00

All great albums need a great story behind them. If you want to learn more from the horses mouth then just search for Bon Iver in myspace videos and there are some brilliant live renditions and interviews with the man himself.

It is near impossible to pick one song off this incredible album. So here are a couple.

Hows this for impromptu.

Worlds worst song?

2008-12-19T08:52:00.002+11:00

Is this the worse song of all time? Got a better example?

The REAL Christmas story, dirty buggers

2008-12-12T10:00:00.003+11:00

Look im not a Grinch ok.

I think Christmas is great. But even when I was a Christian I only ever saw it in secular terms. But even this is not being true to the spirit of the season. The true origins of Christmas are in fact much more interesting than you imagine, and much older. Oh and much nastier.

What confuses me the most is people who spout off about this being a religious holiday without really knowing anything about its history. Why don’t Christians know for example that assuming there was a Jesus, based on the bible he was likely born around April….maybe. I mean the Bible can't even get the year right for Christ's birth for Christ's sakes (pun intended). Various sections contradict each other.

In fact this is in part what you are really celebrating on December 25th. In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis was celebrated on this day. And guess what - the say consisted of party's, eating far too much and drinking more than your body weight, and of course there was gift-giving as well. Remind you of any particular day?

There is also Yule, the Winter Solstice which was celebrated long before Christianity and instead featured the great pagan Sun God, Mithras. Candles were lit to welcome the Sun to the new year. They considered mistletoe as a sacred plant and was used as a fertility ritual, the custom being that people would kiss beneath it.

Hmmm. Seeing a pattern here? I'm strangely reminded of the recent news that Coldplay is being sued by Joe Satriani for plagiarism.

The tree was also an important element of the winter solstice. They were cut down and placed in homes as a reminder that winter will end and crops will be ready to sew at seasons end.

There is also the pagan Roman festival of Saturnalia celebrated from December 17-25. It was a week of complete debauchery with Roman law essentially turning its back and pretending not to notice any bad behaviour. Roman rulers throughout the communities would pick some poor people as the representatives of the Lord Of Misrule. They would be force fed, bonked and buggered to within an inch of their life and then on the 25th they would murder the poor fat and exhausted people.

But as usual in come the Christians to ruin everybody's good time. They decide to incorporate Saturnalia into the faith as a good will gesture to all the Godless looking for some salvation. Then in a typical dramatic twist they went and declared the baby Jesus' birthday to be December 25th, basically attempting to kill the mood of the whole festival. Nobody wants to think about Gods son, or God fathering himself or whatever it is, while they are gang banging their neighbours daughter. But this change from hedonism to morality took quite some time to evolve.

Skipping forward to the 1400's we see Pope Paul II forcing Jews to run naked through the streets of Rome. Whilst Pope Paul found this highly amusing the poor Jews did not share in his amusement at all. This continued until as late as 1836 when the Jewish community sent a petition to Pope Gregory XVI begging the church to stop this abuse; to which he replied that it was not an opportune time to go making any innovations. What a prick!

It got worse in 1881 when Christian leaders went too far with their anti-Semitic abuse which led to massive riots. 12 Jewish people were killed, many more maimed and of course there was wide spread rape. God bless the pure of heart.

In the end I think I will just continue to treat this holiday as secular. I doubt friends and family would join me in a literal celebration of this lawless and cruel day. No amount of fake birthdays is going to make me pretend that this day is in any way a Christian one.

So in honour of our enlightened times, I wish you all a happy, fun filled and ethical holiday. Treat your family and community with the respect it deserves and be happy we live in a time where reason and freethought is welcomed by many. Merry Christmas.

MPs on the meaning of Christmas

2008-12-07T18:23:00.004+11:00

From the House of Reps Hansard for December 4, 2008:

Kevin Rudd (Prime Minister): As we approach the Christmas season, there are often debates about Christmas being a Christian festival or a non-Christian festival in various parts of the world. I think the truth is this: whether we are of faith or not of faith, this is an important season for us all. For those of us who are of faith, it celebrates the birth of the Christ child. For those beyond faith it is a celebration for all families, and all therefore enjoy this season which lies ahead.

Beyond faith? As in, grown out of it, or as in a lost cause?

Malcolm Turnbull (Leader of the Oposition): This is, of course, the season of Christmas and we are celebrating the birth of Jesus, the birth of the man—the son of God—who established a faith that is as inspiring as it is mysterious, a faith that is based on love. This is truly, then, the season of love, and that is why families come together. It is why we come together to eat, for Christmas feasts, for lunches and dinners. We remember, too, that there is nothing more human than families coming together to share a meal. Indeed, the Eucharist is at the centre of our own faith, of our own liturgy—that sacred meal.

We should also remember that not all of the members of this House are members of the Christian faith. Indeed, I think it is important today to remember that a number of our colleagues around this time of year--around the Christmas season, if you like—-will be celebrating the feast of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival. That is a festival of lights and it celebrates the indomitable nature of the Jewish people.

Christianity, Judaism...yep, I think that's all of 'em.

Warren Truss (Leader of the Nationals): Christmas is a special time of the year. It is a time when families can gather together and enjoy one another’s company. From a parliamentary perspective, it is a time when we are able to have a break and perhaps live slightly more normal lives. But Christmas is more than just decorations, gifts and parties—although a special part of my Christmas is always decorating the family home with Christmas lights so that I can demonstrate what a special time Christmas is for me in my neighbourhood. The celebrations and symbols of Christmas highlight the joyous reason for our festivities—namely, the birth of Jesus Christ, who brought salvation and the message of peace and goodwill to all. Those who seek to take Christmas out of the holidays or Christ out of the Christmas certainly lose the central reason for our celebrations and their meaning and purpose.

Mmmmmmmm.

Testimonials - proof that SOI works

2008-11-28T15:08:00.002+11:00

How many products or services have you seen that use testimonials to prove their effectiveness. People take these as evidence that whatever it is works. There are thousands out there and it obviously works. Some good examples would be vitamin pills, chiropractic work and psychics but there really are a lot of them. My favourites are the TV advertorial types.

So we don't get that many people looking at SOI and i figure to save us the bother of researching why this is and then doing something about it; i though why not just use testimonials instead. No cost, no time and you don't even need people to write them for you.

Here are some we generated from the wonderful service called Testimonial Generator.

It's really wonderful. Nice work on your Subjects Of Interest. I could probably go into sales for you.
--Julie Miller

Man, this thing's getting better and better as I learn more about it. I STRONGLY recommend Subjects Of Interest to EVERYONE interested in running a successful online business! Subjects Of Interest did exactly what you said it does.
--Julie Gray

It really saves me time and effort. Subjects Of Interest saved my business. I would like to personally thank you for your outstanding product.
--Mary Howard

I'd be lost without Subjects Of Interest. I love Subjects Of Interest. It's all good. Really good.
--James Phillips

Thanks to Thinking Is Real blog for the idea.

Religion hates women - second example, some Muslims

2008-11-21T08:48:00.005+11:00

Following on from yesterdays post lets not be Christian-centric here. There are plenty of Muslim men who also do their part to ensure Gods love of female suffering is satiated.

As long as religion is given a level of undeserved respectability, suffering like this will always thrive.

Local Muslim clerics accused
Barney Zwartz
November 21, 2008
The Age Online

SOME Muslim religious leaders in Victoria are condoning rape within marriage, domestic violence, polygamy, welfare fraud and exploitation of women, according to an explosive report on the training of imams.
The report says some imams apply Sharia (Islamic law) when it benefits men but not when it benefits women, and that they hinder police from pursuing domestic violence charges.
Women seeking divorces have also been told by imams that they must leave "with only the clothes on their back" and not seek support or a share of property because they can get welfare payments.
And the report says some imams knowingly perform polygamous marriages, also knowing that the second wife, a de facto under Australian law, can claim Centrelink payments.
The report is based on a study commissioned and funded by the former Howard government and conducted by the Islamic Women's Welfare Council of Victoria.
It was presented yesterday at a National Centre for Excellence in Islamic Studies conference at Melbourne University.
It is the result of extensive community consultation, interviews with police, lawyers, court workers and academics, and meetings with and questions to the Victorian Board of Imams.
The board's role is to provide an Islamic view and religious guidance to the community and represent it to the media. The report claims that the 24-man board ignored or did not directly answer many of the questions.
It says women, community and legal workers and police involved in the consultation were particularly concerned about domestic violence, and suggested that imams aimed to preserve the family at the cost of women.
When cases came to court they were often dropped after family and community elders pressured women to withdraw charges.
The report says some women who were legally separated but not religiously divorced had their husbands enter their houses, demand sexual intercourse and take it by force.
"Workers who have assisted women in this situation said that the advice women received from the imams was that it was "halal" — permitted — because there was a valid "nikah" — marriage," it says.
The report also cites sexual assault allegations connected with under-age marriages.
It says polygamy is steadily increasing and gaining acceptance among Melbourne Muslims, and Shepparton police report many "de facto" relationships that are really polygamous marriages.
"Community workers who have provided support to women whose husbands took another wife religiously said that women blame the availability of Centrelink benefits … since one or the other wife will be claiming it, relieving the husband of the responsibility of supporting two families," the report says.
Community members quoted in the report believe that imams' narrow religious training in an increasingly complex world, lack of life experience, poor English and lack of understanding of Australia create problems for the community. For example, ill-informed comment by imams drew a wedge between the mainstream and Muslim communities.
The report suggests the Muslim community believes many imams are ill-equipped for the role, which involves much higher expectations in Australia than in predominantly Muslim countries, including marriage counselling, pastoral and spiritual care, marriages and divorces.
"They come from their own little village and culture and say this is what Islam is," one woman is quoted saying. "They come from a village where there is no running water and electricity, and they bring their dark ideas into this country."
The secretary of the Board of Imams, Sheikh Fehmi Naji El-Imam, said he could not understand how the council could write such a report and denied the complaints "absolutely".
"They must have heard stories here and there and are writing about them as though they are fact," he said.
Sheikh Fehmi, who is also Mufti of Australia, said no authorised imam would conduct a polygamous marriage, and it was absolutely wrong that women's rights were ignored in marriage or divorce, or that imams ignored domestic violence.
"I haven't heard of any case where the board disregarded a woman or did not try to help her," he said.
Islamic women's council chairwoman Tasneem Chopra said: "We are hoping we can negotiate with the appropriate authorities a better outcome for women, whether through law reform or education.
"This is a crucial, necessary beginning but it is part of a much larger picture."
----------

Dan
'Be good for goods sake, not for gods sake'

Australian Christian Lobby and womens rights? You have to be kidding.

2008-11-20T11:06:00.005+11:00

Taken from News.com.au

'Australian Christian Lobby says Sex Party 'supports exploitation of women'

The nation's newest political party has come under fire from Christian groups even before its official launch.
The Australian Sex Party supports the exploitation and degradation of women through pornography and prostitution, the groups say.

The Australian Christian Lobby wants all other political parties to preference the party last on how-to-vote cards to prevent it taking seats in state and federal parliaments

"Pauline Hanson was rightly put last on how-to-vote cards because of her inappropriate views on race," lobby director Jim Wallace said.

The Australian Sex Party should be treated in the same way for its inappropriate views about women.''

The party will launch itself at the national Sexpo event in Melbourne today.

The party's platform includes opposition to the national internet filter, supporting gay marriage and adoption of a national sex education curriculum.
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Now here are some quotes about women from the word of God. The Bible is judged by the Christian Lobby as being our source of morality. So lets see what the Bible has to say about women -:

"But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God." (I Corinthians 11:3)

"For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man." (I Corinthians 11:8-9)

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." (Ephesians 5:22-24)

"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." (I Corinthians 14:34-35)

"Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up." (Hosea 13:16)

"Give me any plague, but the plague of the heart: and any wickedness, but the wickedness of a woman." (Eccles. 25:13)

"Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die." (Eccles. 25:22)

"If she go not as thou wouldest have her, cut her off from thy flesh, and give her a bill of divorce, and let her go." (Eccles. 25: 26)

"The whoredom of a woman may be known in her haughty looks and eyelids. If thy daughter be shameless, keep her in straitly, lest she abuse herself through overmuch liberty." (Eccles. 26:9-10)

"A silent and loving woman is a gift of the Lord: and there is nothing so much worth as a mind well instructed. A shamefaced and faithful woman is a double grace, and her continent mind cannot be valued." (Eccles. 26:14-15)

"A shameless woman shall be counted as a dog; but she that is shamefaced will fear the Lord." (Eccles.26:25)

"For from garments cometh a moth, and from women wickedness. Better is the churlishness of a man than a courteous woman, a woman, I say, which bringeth shame and reproach." (Eccles. 42:13-14)

"Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean." (Leviticus 12:2)

"Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works." (Revelation 2:22-23)

"When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets: then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her." (Deuteronomy 25:11-12)

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Whoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death. He that sacrificeth unto any god, save to the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed." (Exodus 22:18-20)

"Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing. But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go." (Judges 19:24-25)

"Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." (I Timothy 2:11-14)

"If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;" (Deuteronomy 22:22)

"Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you." (Deuteronomy 22:24)

"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." (Genesis 3:16)

------------------------
My thanks to God for allowing me to quote him for this post.

For more information on where we get our morals from, i recommend this forum as a good starting point.

No one as Irish as Barack Obama

2008-11-17T11:15:00.001+11:00

It's fascinating how affectionate the satire surrounding Obama is. And yes, I admit it, I too have turned into an irrational Obama fanboy.

- Mark

Why you should never support Christian Charities

2008-11-12T14:31:00.003+11:00

This is just one example of why I will not be handing my money over to any charity that is Christian run. And before people start sending us nasty comments about what good the charities do, just remember that while they are not personally committing these acts, they are most definitely enabling them by their very air of supposed respectability.

Charity and religion should be just a separate as Church and state. If a Christian wants to do good then more power to them, but do it for goods sake not for Gods sake. "Here is your food and medicine, all we ask is you listen to us about how Jesus can save you". Leave religion out of it.

The article linked to below refers to Christian religious leaders in Nigeria making people pay a years worth of wages to perform exorcisms on their defenseless and terrified children. The alternative being they are kicked out of their community or hacked to death because these same Church leaders preach that child-witches walk amongst them.

If these people have Christ in their hearts i would hate to come across a Satanist!

Click here to read the UK Telegraph article by David Harrison.

Please go here to find a list of non-religious charities and help keep religion out of charity. Thanks to the techskeptic blog for providing this. My charity of choice is Doctors without borders.

The power of prayer? Please explain.

2008-11-05T15:15:00.002+11:00

Members of the same religion and even the same church have just been praying for their respective candidate to win the US Election.

Now that Obama has won, could someone please explain in some detail how this works? Why has God apparently chosen Obama over McCain?

How do we explain the intracacies of who's prayer gets heard?

Friday Affettuoso - my homework was never like this

2008-10-31T14:16:00.004+11:00

I was one of those kids that was just bored in school. The teaching methods never worked for me and i just zoned out most of the time.

This is some footage of a teacher in Hungary who was given truth or dare at a school party. I guess she chose dare.

This woman has my full and complete attention. Perhaps i should move over there to finally live out my dream of becoming the real Billy Madison and begin school all over again.

I just hope she doesn't expect me to stand for the national anthem.

I dedicate this Friday Affettuoso to sexy stripper teacher. The rest of me might be all Aussie but from now on ive got Hungary eyes.

boom boom

Tagging in i-tunes on a rainy night

2008-10-29T13:13:00.003+11:00

I bet you all know an iTunes hater.

You know these guys, the ones who poo-poo anything even remotely popular. These are the same people that use Linux instead of Windows and bring their own Sake to catered parties.

They probably use something like Media Monkey and are the very same ones that turn renegade on you in online games. They have the morals of an alley rat (cat is too good for them) and frankly they smell a bit too.

SoiTunes gets its criticism yes. Sometimes it is justified (this Genius obviously has never heard of classical or roots music before) but most of the issues you may come across usually have a solution if you just look hard enough. Lifehacker is one such site I would recommend for those wanting to learn more about making the most out of the application.

It was in that very site that I came across some great information regarding tagging. Now I just love this idea so much I had to share. I love that I can drill down to a song and associate all kinds of descriptive tidbits about it. Perhaps this appeals to a certain type of individual; one who likes labels. Or maybe those who like to consider the future.

I recently heard that this is a good signpost for marking intelligence. Those who consider possible future uses is the benchmark for our species evolution. Way back around 40,000 years ago when the Neandertals were still kicking around alongside our ancestors; it is believed that your dear old great great great …. well you get the idea…… grandparents began storing water by burying it in the shade of a tree in large ostrich eggs. This was to ensure there was water available when they came back that way. This is what distinguished us from our slack jawed cousins the Neandertals. We developed the skill of imagination and it is why we are here now with such bloody big brains. We won, go us.

This leads us thousands of years back to the future and we can see millions of examples of future planning; most of the time it’s the most boring topic imaginable. But tagging is definitely not my friends. Tagging is the emancipator from your staid and limited musical tastes. And here is where I round up this blog beautifully by finally making my point.

iTunes does not have a specific tagging option however you simply have to use the Comments field to add them. For example with a song like 'I love a rainy night' by Eddie Rabbit I would possibly use the following tags - Weather, rain, night, love, bad 80's music, OR with my collection of Mojo and Uncut magazine CD's is add the tags - magazine, uncut (or) mojo, etc

What this means is that once you start amassing enough tagged music you can begin to use the playlist option in i-tunes with some aplomb and panache. Forget the boring old 'Year of release' or 'Genre' or 'Least played' or 'Most recently added' playlists. By using tags you can create the most fascinating mixes by connecting music with a subject or theme such as 'Magazine' or 'Weather'. When I did this the resulting mix of music was a revelation. Rock,jazz, alternative, roots, reggae, world from any time all played beautifully together. It is almost like giving people a free pass to enjoy music they would normally not listen to. All you need to do is select Random and as long as you have enough music you can keep updating the random option and here new music for the same tag. I tell you it’s the bees knees.

My personal favourites so far have been 'The word blue', 'Seasons' and 'Bob Dylan' added with 'Bob Dylan covers'. Have a try yourself and come back to tell us your favourite tagged playlists.

And finally, as we roll into another Australian summer scorcher (hey that’s a great idea for a playlist, Australian songs with the word summer), don’t think that we at SOI are not doing our part. Water restrictions are on their way so to combat this disaster we offer to the gods a rain song to appease their cruel and jealous ways.

Do you come in a dozen OR have a heart.

2008-10-22T09:51:00.008+11:00

Recently I have heard a few rumblings in print and podcast about Japan's Toyama University professor Makoto Nakamura. There is much interest in his research into using and inkjet printers to possibly produce human organs. Essentially the idea is instead of ink you eject cells with the technology to slowly build a 3D structure by applying layer after layer. Here is the article.

Being very new to biology I find it hard to grasp just how these cells are manipulated to become specifically heart cells. This process is so incredibly complicated. I don't get how he supplies the cells with the required ingredients. This is why learning about these things is so vastly superior to reading about UFOs for example. We have such beautiful complexity within us, so why are we so taken with crop circles and aura colours and past life regressions?

When I heard about this I was reminded of a terrific book by Michael Marshall Smith in which clones are created of people who can afford it and when emergencies arise doctors have an exact copy of the patient to take what is required. Smith takes the story into some strange territories that are not so science fiction any more. It is both disturbing and morbidly fascinating. In other words a great read.

It brings us neatly back to ethics in science. A subject of interest that I know Mark is keen to talk about some more.

Until next time.............

Sarah Palin, Parah Salin

2008-10-18T10:18:00.000+11:00

I'm not sure why this is amusing. But it is.

Sarah Palin can't say 'nuclear' either

2008-10-16T09:36:00.000+11:00

Sally Kern - amazing new evidence about Atlantis demise

2008-10-02T15:24:00.004+10:00

Could you all please bow your heads. I am about to speak.

I once was knew a guy who started to record conversations with his friends without their knowing. The consequences of which were a bunch of people who were really pissed off totally betrayed. I cant tell you why he thought this was a good idea but it became something of an obsession for him. He would record phone conversations and then took to videoing people at his home without their being aware.

This could be viewed as a tremendous violation in itself however he took it one step further. During these converstations he would start to talk about other friends and would ask what they thought of this person or that. Now we are all a little gossipy at heart and it is not unusual for a person who feels secure in the privacy of a converation to start totally bagging the shit out of others. What they don’t expect is for this guy to then phone that person once they have left and play the conversation to them over the phone. Suffice to say nothing would be the same for any party involved. It was horribly sick of him and I soon cut off contact for good.

But you see nothing in this world is truly black and white and it got me wondering if perhaps this sort of underhandedness is ever justified.

And the answer is clearly YES.

It is said that God hears and sees all. But if God is supposed to be keeping track of all these conversations he appears to be content with hoarding them for some bizarre personal use. So its up to us on the ground floor as it were to start making people accountable for what they say. I say bring Big Brother to the streets. After all they say that if you make a comment that you wouldn’t say in front of your Mother then you shouldn’t say it at all.

Here is a terrific example of why some conversations you have with certain people should be secretly recorded. This is an audio recording of Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern, who was secretly recorded speaking all kinds of vile crap at a party. The best bit is her 'evidence' that no society that supports homosexuality has lasted more than a few decades. This could possible go down as the stoooopidest statement ever made for so many reasons.

Here is some of the fallout.

Howling at the moon - A rollicking ramadan rant

2008-10-01T09:06:00.006+10:00

I got this email from a friend living in a certain country with majority of people of the Muslim faith. I found it so amusing that I had to share it.

Ok. I am in another planet. Definitely. Totally and completely...During RAMADAN no one can eat or drink in public from sunrise to sunset. If you do, the police can charge you, fine you and lock you up. My alternative was to eat chocolates in the toilets. The only trick was to transport the chocolate without it melting before we got to the toilet. The muslims normally sleep late and party all night. Shops, beauty saloons, coffee shops, everything opens until after mid night... A huge party all over. The most amusing thing is how they decide when RAMADAN will end. A group of wise muslim guys watch and study the moon and based on it's position, declares EID (end of RAMADAN and 3 days public holidays). Today at 8:30 pm they decided tomorrow is EID. No schools or business will open. They told someone, who told someone else, the text messages started going around, the telecommunications were overloaded, no phone calls were going through...It is hillarious. I was trying to call people to come for dinner tomorrow and just could not reach most of them because the phone lines are totally overloaded. Imagine if you want to take advantage of these holidays. Can I please have a flight going there on the first day of EID and coming back on the last? And I would like to book my accomodation for the third day of EID, whenever it is...Can i please have a car rental too? When?? Not sure, when is EID going to be again? Oh, of course, we don't know yet...heheI am sure I will get used to it. At some stage...

PS: my friend has demanded she be named as the source - Inaie Ramalho from Bahrain.

A bugs life - laughing at the dumb ass humans

2008-09-26T11:52:00.002+10:00

Apparently this is news worthy material on a reputable news site.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24405565-23109,00.html

MOTION-detecting cameras at a Kansas gym have recorded a mysterious white orb floating around fitness equipment, unnerving the gym's owner.

Security cameras at the Overland Park gym videotaped the image hovering and lingering around dumbbells in the middle of the night, local media reported.

The motion-detecting system at the gym had been activated nine times, baffling owner Kim Peterson and the security firm, CNN affiliate local6.com reported.

Ms Peterson said she was sure there was a logical explanation but the security company said the system had ruled out bugs, dust or headlights from cars passing outside.

"I called my security company and said, 'Is there a lightbulb going out or do I need to get up and clean the lens?" Ms Peterson said.
"They reviewed it and said, 'We have no idea what that is'."
-------------------------------------------------------------

It is amazing how a small insect crawling around the glass of a camera lens can cause such confusion. Similar 'ghost' videos have been seen before and are easily replicated. If you ask Mark nicely he might point you to one he sent me a while back.

The Psychology of Music Preferences

2008-09-13T11:09:00.011+10:00

Apple has just released a version of iTunes with a new feature called Genius. Genius makes custom playlists (of either music you own or music you might want to by) based on a secret algorithm. If you opt-in, iTunes sends all of your listening history data (e.g., track names, artist names, playcounts, skipcounts) to a central server. The algorithm then looks for patterns in worldwide listening trends. To use Genius you right-click a particular song, choose 'start Genius', and BANG you've got a list of 'similar' songs. I'm loving it. It's helped me rediscover some music that Dan had given me but that I hadn't listened to much.

This got me thinking about how one might statistically look for trends in music preferences. I wondered if there'd ever been a factor analysis of music preferences. A factor analysis is a statical technique for finding trends amongst different variables. It's often used in personality research. You ask a large sample of volunteers a whole stack of questions (e.g., "On a scale of 1 to 10 how much do you like parties?", "How much do you like being the center of attention?" etc.) and look for shared variance in the responses. I've written about factor analyses of personality related data before here.

Anyway, a quick literature search turned up this article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology:

Rentfrow, P.J., Gosling, S.D. (2003). The Do Re Mi’s of Everyday Life: The Structure and Personality Correlates of Music Preferences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(6), 136-1256.

Among the studies reported is a factor analytic study of music preferences. 1,704 students from the University of Texas were asked to rate each of 14 music genres on a scale from 1 ('I don't like it at all') to 7 ('I like it a great deal'). The genres were: alternative, blues, classical, country, electronica/dance, folk, heavy metal, rap/hip-hop, jazz, pop, religious, rock, soul/funk, and sound tracks.

The analysis revealed 4 main dimensions (factors) that captured 59% of the total variance. The names given to these factors and the genres associated with them are as follows:

- Reflective and complex (blues, jazz, classical, and folk)
- Intense and rebellious (rock, alternative, heavy metal)
- Upbeat and Conventional (country, sound track, religious, and pop)
- Energetic and Rhytmic (rap/hip-hop, soul/funk, and electronica/dance)

These dimensions are reasonably independent of each other (1). People who like reflective and complex music are just as likely to enjoy intense and rebellious music as they are to not. What these factors mean is that if someone likes a genre related to a particular dimension (e.g., blues) then they'll probably also like the other genres on that dimension (e.g., jazz). The same goes for disliking a genre.

One limitation of this study is that peoples' understanding of genre terms may vary. I might think that I don't like folk music and yet like many songs that others would categorise as folk. It would be great to see an analysis done on song by song ratings, rather than just genres.

Another analysis, which was really interesting, involved looking for relationships between e musical preferences and differences in personality and cognitive ability. They found all sorts of relationships, although most of them were quite small (.2ish). The largest one (.4ish) was between a preference for Reflective and Complex music and the personality characteristic Openness to Experience. Interestingly, there was a small (.2ish) relationship between verbal IQ and liking of Reflective and Complex, Intense and Rebellious, or Upbeat and Conventional music (2).

Very interesting stuff.

I'd love to see these researchers team up with Apple and analyse the iTunes Genius data.

---------

(1) Upbeat and Conventional and Energetic and Rythmic correlate .5 if allowed to covary.

(2) And no, I don't think this is evidence that music makes you smarter (can you guess why?).

Mark on Science

2008-09-11T10:08:00.002+10:00

Science is a special kind of magic, practiced by people called 'nerds'. No body knows how it works for sure, but it probably has something to do with computer machines.

Be careful, science is dangerous. Nerds get so lazy from all their science making that they only have enough strength to stare into space, talk to the internet, or drive their electric wheelchairs.

Sometimes nerds get angry. If too many nerds are angry at one time, electricity stops working and nuclear bombs go off. Damn you nerds! (but don't tell them i said that)

Luckily, normal people can reap the rewards of science without having to risk their own sanity, because nerds are happy to do science for you. They will accept monetary compensation, but are also happy to work for social approval.

One final note. Logic tells us that all nerds wear glasses, but that not all people who wear glasses are nerds. You may not agree with this opinion, but you'll have a hard time convincing me otherwise, as there are two sides to every fact.

The Google Habit

2008-09-04T09:04:00.005+10:00

I have to remind myself to google the small stuff.

It occurred to be a while back that with the Internet being as it is, there's really no reason to ever NOT look stuff up. The time it takes to Google a quick answer is so small that it's more efficient to Google than waste any time wondering.

Even for the silly questions that float through one's head. What is the gestational period of an elephant? What is an 'aptronym'? How old is the universe? You can have a preliminary answer in seconds.
But I have to remind myself to Google. It's a habit I'm trying to cultivate.

Google should launch a TV add campaign. Each add should be only 5 seconds and should just ask a question for you to Google:
"Do lead pencils have lead in them? Google it!"
"How many light years to the nearest star? Google it!"

Won't a reliance on Google lead to cognitive atrophy? I'm not sure that it will. Maybe it will free up the mind to think about the hard questions, the big questions, the questions that apply only to me. Of course, this too is a habit I need to cultivate.

Blogged by Mark

Ray Lamontagne new song

2008-08-28T11:21:00.002+10:00

I just happened across an upcoming track from Ray Lamontagne's new album out soon called 'Gossip in the grain'. I was responding to somebody over at Aaron Darc's site about a comment Tina Arena made regarding big voiced singers being out of vogue. I wanted to use Ray as an example of someone who understands when to use the big voice and when to use a more subtle approach.

His new song provides us this as an illustration. It is another beautiful song. He is in my humble opinion on of our generations greatest singer/songwriters.

Speaking in tongues - the real deal

2008-08-25T15:19:00.008+10:00

I have just come across some more amazing new technology that has the capacity to completely change the life of a person unable to speak. Let's use cerebral palsy as an example of a specific disability that in many cases has this very issue. I have spent a number of years in my 20's working as an aid for people with cerebral palsy. The greatest shame to me was not the disability of the person with cerebral palsy but the disability of the carers to understand them. Given time shared with a specific individual it is amazing how much non-verbal communication you can share however the barrier still remains. Particularly with the pace of communicating an idea.

When I was working in London I was assisting a man my own age with driving his car to music college and also with lunch and bathroom visits. Much like the film 'My Left Foot' that famously portrays the life of Christy Brown, my client also had full control of his left foot and did his composing with a tab on the end of his shoe. He also used the electronic speaking device im sure we have all seen used by the like of Stephen Hawking. Once I got to know my client better I was able to pick up his body language and this meant that communication became quicker and with less fumbling for the point. One of the ways he would maintain control over his destiny was to take me a different route every day, so that I would be forced to rely on his directions whilst we were driving. Many a morning I would be driving through the maze of inner London, watching for other cars and pedestrians while at the same time looking in the rear view mirror at my client pointing directions with his head when he wasnt quick enough to type them out. On a number of occasions he would be calling for my attention frantically only to discover that he wanted me to check out some hot lady walking down the street. He was a horny little devil.

It was always a challenge working with anyone with limitations of verbal communication. I doubt we can truly appreciate what it is like not to be heard. Let alone be able to do simple tasks on our own like turn on a light or change a channel.

Which brings us to a recent article on theage which can be found here. It is essentially some new technology which works on using the tongue as a means of controlling a mechanism which once perfected will aid people in speech and other tasks. The reasoning for the tongue being the controller is that it is connected to the brain rather than the spinal column. In the cases of people with quadriplegia this would be a vital new technology. I am less certain that it will work for all people with cerebral palsy as the tongue movement for some people may be involuntary. In these cases using the eyes and facial expressions would be more useful. Below is an amazing talk on this very thing. Watch this guy perform a self composed piece of music live with just his face and head movements.

So next time you are thinking of handing over some money to somebody, consider helping researchers like this who are trying to make a real difference to a very silent minority.

Pastor Michael Guglielmucci and why we dont get morals from religion.

2008-08-22T09:00:00.015+10:00

An interesting report on news.com.au has caught our attention.

Read it here -
http://www.news.com.au/comments/0,23600,24216087-2,00.html

Add to this a paragraph from an earlier report - 'There is an amazing moment on the latest Hillsong DVD, This Is Our God, when Michael Guglielmucci, stricken with cancer, walks on stage with an oxygen tent to boldly sing his song Healer.'

In essence this pastor told his congregation and indeed the world that he had cancer. He has preached to thousands of impressionable people and even recorded a hit song called Healer. The major problem with all this was that he never had cancer in the first place.

It is a fascinating and sometimes disturbing thing to see the reactions in the comments section of this article and articles like it. I decided it would be worth some time to comment on the comments as it where. It is also fascinating to note that TV has refused to pick up this story.

I am not intending for this to be a chance to mock some Christians, rather I would like to use this opportunity for people to view the many ways that religion protects itself. Remember that they have had a long time to finesse these responses and the excuses are almost a tradition in themselves.

Let the diversions begin…………... my comments in blue.

I think it's sad that other people who don't belong to a religion as such who make detrimental mistakes don't have to be ostracized the way Mike has. I don't belittle the effects of what he's done but it's unrealistic to hold him to a different standard than any other human being who's made huge mistakes because of his faith in Christ. As a "crazy Christian" myself, I believe in an enemy as much as God. So as much as Mike is not exempt from the enemy, he's neither exempt from God's grace. It's a shame others don't consider exercising that grace too.
Posted by: Kate Lauren of Australia

And yet the very same argument is used against non-believers - where does your morals come from? Implying that without faith you would have no moral compass. What double standards this is. The apt term here is 'if you cant handle the heat get out of the kitchen'. Don’t aspire to be societys moral compass if the people in the faith behave no more morality than those not of the faith. And of course the other chesnut is the fall back - satan. If a believer is immoral it must surely be the devils work.

If only you knew what this man has had to endure, then you would not sneer but feel commpassion. I have know Mike for many yeras now and this is a shock to me too, just because the messenger fails, doesn't mean the message is false. I think what we need to remember is that Mike is not God, he is a man and i just hope that he gets up from his fall to show us what the power of God can really do.
Posted by: shaun of melbourne

Just because a person is perceived to be suffering, it does not justify immorality. It just means that this person decided that through his suffering he would show the worst in himself rather than the best, which every single Christian was praising him for before this bombshell hit. Its like shooting excuse arrows at a moving target.

What is the message if not to be a moral person, to be a good representative of the faith and to do no harm? And lets not forget the most important disctinction here - we are told ovre and over again that without faith we cannot be moral. This is the distinction here.

Again we see the moving target. Sin is not frowned upon, it simply gives us a great opportunity to show how no matter what we do there is forgiveness after the fact.

God see's your little lie as the exact same thing as Mikes big fraud. Infact all sin is the same so we're all on the same scale here.
Posted by: kelly of brisbane

This must be a great deal of comfort to murderers, dictators committing genocide and men pretending to speak for God. If its all the same and we are forgiven anyway, lets go nuts.

Wow. Sounds like 90% of the comments are from people just waiting to pounce the moment a 'christian' screws up. So if it had been a politician, would the whole government's laws & regulations be a sham? If it was an athlete, are the olympics not real and all in our imagination? You gotta remember, there are things that your weak minds and limited perception that you just cannot grasp. ie, the idea of something OTHER THAN YOU. Praying for you Gug..
Posted by: Carey Lee of Melbourne

No Carey, but then the politician does not make a promise to abide by a set of commandments does he. Given the Church consistently tells us that without God there is no morality, it is well within our rights to criticize a person for not acting out his faith. When a politician acts in a manne which contravenes his roles and responsibilities then he is indeed held fully accountable. If the laws and regulations are not robust enough then they can be adjusted, unlike the Bible.

For a Christian to use the terms 'weak minds' and 'limited perception' is about the funniest thing I have read so far.

And as for those who think all we do is pray, therefore nothing, take a look at the women's and children's hospital and schools around the country that have been renovated for no other reason than because the church wants to love people.
Posted by: Kate Lauren of Australia 3:36am

This is completely false. It shows a complete lack of knowledge. Kate simple assumes that the Church is the only thing keeping hospitals and schools together because Christians are taught not to research, but to merely believe. Belief does not unfortunately make a thing true.

As my co-blogger Mark has pointed out - It's confusing the difference between there being people who do good things AND are Christian, and people who do good things BECAUSE they are Christian.

But take it from this Christian--believing in something bigger than yourself, like God isn't being brainwashed. It's being brave. And at the end of the day, sure I could be wrong. But I'd rather take my chances believing there is a God and die wrong than believe there wasn't only to find out there was.
Posted by: Kate Lauren of Australia 4:43am today

With this argument it stands to reason that Kate should also join every other faith, because one particular faith could be wrong. And im sure she would rather take her chances believing in them all 'just in case'. What a horrible and selfish reason to devote yourself to a belief. Forget the religions positives to the community and all, im just looking out for number one here.

As Infidel of Adelaide has also confirmed- Pascal's Wager is a fundamentally flawed reason for believing in God. Looking at it rationally, the only sensible option is to go with the overwhelming evidence provided by science, not religion, for the answers to the big questions of the universe.. but then, religion has never been about logic, rationality or making sense, has it?

Mark also adds - This argument if a famous one. It's called Pascals Wager. You've identified one hole in this logic - that there a lots of different gods to believe in, and some gods say not to believe in the other ones. There's also two potentially false premises: 1) that there would be bad consequences for not believing if he does exist, 2) and that there are no consequences for believing if he doesn't.

Oooh, big news, Christian lied, therefore all Christians are deceived liars. So if we extend that line of reasoning a little further: Atheist Hitler killed people, therefore all atheists are evil murderers. All people make mistakes. Nobody is perfect. But thank goodness somebody paid the price for my sins.
Posted by: Ben of Canberra

In fact Hitler was NOT an atheist, he was a Catholic. Let me repeat that just in case it is forgotten. In fact Hitler was NOT an atheist, he was a Catholic.

I actually had a tangible spiritual experience at one meeting he spoke at... which I attribute to God... I know some may mock... it doesn't worry me... I'm just pointing out God uses anything (including fakes) to bring people closer to him. Essentially the only thing separating a Christian from a Non Christian is faith... we are just like everyone else. I personally apologize for our self righteous mentality. We really are no better, we are just like you.
Posted by: Jezer

Wow, this is a new one. God uses anything to bring people closer to him, including making a mockery of his apparent teachings. With that sort of argument we could attribute the holocaust, hiroshima or even a dab of vegemite on toast to being God's way of converting people to the true faith? Obviously it would require someone of faith to point them out to us otherwise, well it could be mistaken for just a piece of toast.

I'm saddened for him that he felt that he needed to go this route. i have faith however that god will use this situation for his glory.
Posted by: ben

It has actually been proven that prayer has absolutely no impact on the sick individual that they a praying for. This test was conducted by the faithful by the way. They are just keeping it quiet obviously.

The larger these christian institutions become, the stronger the self-preservation instinct seems to be which generally results in what we see all too often
Posted by: Dan of Hobart

Right on brother! The comments above provide many examples of self preservation. It truly is all religion has left. The last gasp.

Good comments Kate Osutsider of Perth would rather believe that he came from a monkey and his words do depict the culture. A foolish man says in his heart there is no God" and I dont choose to be foolish
Posted by: Sorry i missed this persons name.

Do you think this person has ever considered opening a book about evolution or do you think perhaps she is basing her opinion on someones comments within the church? Perhaps she should also do a little reading or watching of monkeys and their culture. Personally i like to test my beliefs with others who conflict mine. If my beliefs are based on knowledge and evidence then iI should not be afraid to read an alternative view. Which is why I began to read up on evolutionary theory.

I embrace my foolishness with all my heart.

This is hardest for the people who know Mike and have been on the journey with him for the past 4+ years. But of course. Then you get a bunch of atheistic dorks who have nothing better to do with their life, than try and "Prove" that God doesnt exist from a MAN'S flaw.
Beau of Melbourne

The onus is on YOU to prove God exists. Because there is plenty of evidence out there to support he doesn’t or at the very least we have still seen nothing that cannot be explained without a Gods input. Point me to the relevant studies my friend.

Finally a great comment from Jonathan -

Shaun - what he's had to endure? Regardless of what may have happened in his life (I have no idea what he's been through), he brought this on himself. Nobody forced him to pretend to have cancer for 2 years. I've been through a lot in my 26 years on this planet (including 16 years of very serious illness) but I would never do what he has done. I've no idea if he made money out of this lie but at the very least if he didn't, his church and Hillsong made a packet. It's time evangelical Christians stopped making excuses for crooked preachers.The traditional denominations have far more than their fair share of problems, to be sure, but time and time again, evangelical preachers are shown to be charlatans. It's an easy way to make money, when no divinity training is required and people flock to your place of worship and can be convinced to hand over 10% (often more) of their income with few questions asked. Maybe Hillsong et al will donate any money they made out of this man's songs and sob-story to charity. Nah, not likely! They'll probably use it to promote their 'mental health services' which are nothing more than money-making exorcisms. I dare say Mike has already been exorcised.

Another great comment -

There seems to be a lot of defenders here. I actually went to school with this guy and am quite shocked. I have just had a friend die of cancer and for anyone to pretend to have cancer is despicable. I would have the same feeling for a person who would do that no matter what their religion is. For someone who should know better to actually benefit from a despicable lie like this just makes it even worse. People who put themselves up as moral leaders and behave in this manner deserve a more severe punishment than an average person because they are in a position of trust. Much like if a Supreme Court judge got caught stealing, they would receive a harsher penalty than the average Joe.
Posted by: Seraph of Adelaide

And a final word from Mark - Overall opinion: the actions of someone who has a belief doesn't speak to the merit of that belief. It does speak to the culture of the Pentecostal church in Australia though.

If you are someone who wants to learn more about the world you live in and how we got here. We suggest you have a read of books by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. If you are of a faith, our challenge is for you to read one of these books and test your beliefs for their robustness.

Septuagint translators and the immoral perpetuation of the virgin birth.

2008-08-15T07:40:00.001+10:00

There are likely few reading this who have not been connected with Christianity at some stage of their life. Probably not many could claim complete secularism, particularly if their parents considered themselves of the faith. Perhaps you were christened or it could be if you are a man that your johnson received some God endorsed plastic surgery. If nothing else it is likely your school had some form of religious studies. No matter what your history with this religion i wonder if you have heard of what i am about to discuss?

Personally I considered myself a Christian for about seven years during my teens. I used to go to this horse riding slash indoctrination facility called Mill Valley Ranch. If you ever attended one of these camps it was impossible not to be drawn in to the all encompassing salesmanship. It never stopped. Daily church attendances, smaller group discussions and every tee-pee we slept in contained a cool Christian councillor to ensure you had no place to escape. Suffice to say it worked a treat on me.

I soon got tired of the lack of non-spin-doctor answers to any of my questions and moved on. That and the fact that my cat died while i was away at some God awful (hee hee) weekend camp with the most aggressive bunch of sexually repressed teens in my life. I took it as a sign and never went back.

I am slightly off point here however i felt it necessary to paint a picture of where i am coming from when telling you about something i discovered while reading The Selfish Gene. It was merely an offside remark Dawkins makes to describe the replication of genes, however i took note of it and as usual went a googling.

The section i am referring to in the book is this - "I suppose the scholors of the Septuagint could at least be said to have started something big when they mistranslated the Hebrew word for 'young woman' into the Greek word for 'virgin', coming up with the prophecy: 'Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son ..'.

Huh? What was that again?

I couldn't believe my eyes. I went to the footnotes for further clarification as well as googling it. There are many links to various sites below however for the sake of completeness i will stick with Dawkins response to those who corresponded with him after reading his book. He explained that this is well known to biblical scholars and indeed not disputed. The Hebrew word in Isaiah is Almah which means 'young woman' of marriageable age, whether married or not, or a virgin or not; in a broad general sense exactly like girl or maid in English. If virgin were the word they were translating it would have been 'Bethulah'. What occurred is the pre-christian Greek translation known as Septuagint used 'Parthenos' which really means virgin. Many English translations also carry this error - 'Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son ..'.. The New English Bible correctly gives 'young woman' in Isaiah. Honestly translated, the verse reads: "Behold, the young woman has conceived-[is with child)-and beareth a son and calleth his name Immanuel."

So the story of the virgin birth is false, the Church know it is false and yet belief in the virgin birth is still maintained. This is outrageous and completely immoral to me. After all this is a huge part of the religion we are talking about. It is also a huge shock that i had never heard of this before. There are plenty of sites out there that will try and counter some of the facts however it is as usual with a profound lack of reasoning or credible evidence that they present their arguments.

If i had any respect straws left on my faith camel they are well and truly broken now. What will we find out next, that the second coming was also false? Perish the thought my heathen friends.

Indeed I once was blind, but now I see.

Want to read more? Here is a nice article - http://www.theskepticalreview.com/tsrmag/2virgi93.html

Fleshing out evolution.

2008-08-08T21:48:00.006+10:00

I grew up believing in evolution. The concept didn't clash with any closely held beliefs of the community I was born into, so I'd heard of the concept and understood it to be the scientific reality that it is. But it wasn't until recently that I actually understood the concept properly. My pre-university concept of evolution was pretty simplistic, something like "creatures gradually get better over time; humans came from monkeys".

But evolution is much more interesting than that, much more profound in its implications, yet not that difficult to understand. The key is why evolution occurs, not just that it does. My sense, however, is that the majority of evolution acceptors in Australia have only ever been exposed to the one sentence version of the concept, as I had been.

So if you want more, here's two recommendations:

Read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. I believe my co-blogger, Dan, is in the middle of it himself.

AND/OR

Check out Dawkins' new TV series The Genius of Charles Darwin

Dan recommends you check out this site for even more fascinating information to help us understand more about us and the world we live in.

Aint the Internet a 'font' of knowledge ;)

2008-08-07T14:15:00.000+10:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Tamsyn - her drug of choice? The media.

2008-08-06T11:39:00.008+10:00

Tamsyn Lewis has made comments over the last few days regarding the number of drug cheats she is up against during the coming Olympics. But surely Tamsyn knows the score here, how can you not? Is she really this gullible?

I mean who actually wants more stringent drug testing? Which group out there is actually going to benefit from the removal of drugs from sport?

Lets face it, the reason that sporting events are so popular is because records are being broken, athletes are consistently pushing the limits of the human body. It is exciting stuff watching these people beat that yellow line which shows us what is important now to viewers. The racers are not racing against the handful of athletes in that particular race, who cares! We want to see them racing the entire history of athletes and we want them to win. Break that damn record, beat the yellow line or its just no fun.

Look at what is being said about the Australian swimming team. Apparently they will be winning 11 gold this year. Nobody cares for what, as long as the numbers are up from last year. As long as we show these damn Americans who the sporting gods really are.

Tamsyn is an ok runner, she will never be the best even if these other athletes stop using performance enhancing drugs. And lets be honest here, she is there partly because she has a pretty face and makes the sport look glamorous (and diverts the attention away from a culture of drug use). She is sort of like Kournakova in this respect. You didn’t think she was in these Tennis tournaments because she was that good did you?

If they cant break a record they damn well better be able to give the viewer a stiffy. Your honour, at this time I would like to offer Beach Volleyball as exhibit A.

I ask this again, who actually is going to gain from more stringent drug testing? We all know the answer to this and it is why the current setup is designed to ensure the athletes can work around tests easily enough as long as they play the political game as well as they play their sport. But if you get too cocky or start becoming too obvious, then you are the next scapegoat to be used to fool the public that something is being done to stop this from getting worse. Sorry to burst peoples bubble but unless you are using these drugs you are not likely to be standing on any pontoon in your life time.

Drugs are rampant throughout sport, not just at the top either. It is part of the sporting culture. Just go on any athletes forum and you will begin to see how entrenched it is in the industry. Tamsyn was never going to win a medal. She knows it and we know it. Making some song and dance about it now is just face saving to the sponsors who she relies on to keep handing over the money so she doesnt have to get an actual job. Lets face it, from her perspective she has to do this. She doesnt win the damn races and without her face in the paper their sponsorship will be handed over to the next pretty young thang that can make a final.

Taking performance enhancing drugs is far from cheating. It’s a must if you care about winning. The truth is harsh and all I can say is don’t go complaining about these people as being cheats if you intend on watching the Olympics this year. You don’t want to be a hypocrite do you? That’s for world class athletes who speak up against drugs in sport.

10 iPhone improvement suggestions

2008-08-05T10:35:00.000+10:00

I love my iPhone. I really do. But it's because I love it so much that I want it to be even better. Here's 10 small things I'd love to see the iPhone do:

1. Preferencing the 2.5G signal over the 3G when the 3G signal is there but so weak as to be slower than 2.5G. Ditto for preferencing 2.5G or 3G over wifi when the wifi is so weak as to be useless.

2. Automatically turning on the VPN when the only wifi connection available requires it (as is the case when I'm on campus). Or at least some way of programming the phone to do this.

3. Google Street View on the maps application

4. An indication of how much data I've used visible on the home screen, not buried in the menus.

5. For updated applications to remain in the same spot on the home screen that they started at.

6. Allow video recording through the camera.

7. Cut and paste.

8. Allow you to put a custom data feed into the screen saver holding screen.

9. Haptic feedback.

10. Sync video playlists like a regular iPod.

Mark Kozelek - the sad life of the troubadour

2008-07-30T14:44:00.009+10:00

Last week I finally had the opportunity to go see one of my favourite songwriters, Mark Kozelek. He now records under the name Sun Kil Moon.

It was a paired down tour with only Mark (Kozelek, not this blogs Mark) and an accompanist also on guitar.

Now this is not going to be a review on the show, I will leave that to the music blogs out there. Instead I want to talk about the sad life of the troubadour.

Years back I attended a music college to study classical guitar. It was not something I was passionate about at all. Rather my parents decided that if I was going to choose music as a career I should do something reputable. This coming from two people who trod the Melbourne pub scene for years. I guess they didn't want me to end up working my backside off for so little gain. It is after all a very difficult life.

Suffice to say I did not last long there. For me it was about songwriting rather than becoming a great musician. I guess this is something they just didn't get. Neither of my parents were big songwriters and the band played mostly covers.

But the thing was I was not a natural performer either. In fact I had terrible stage fright, and still do although I have found ways of dealing with it.

And it is this capacity to cope that brings me to the point of this post. There have been a number of occasions in which I have gone to a gig knowing in advance that the performer is extremely shy. It was interesting then to see how they cope with this on stage. Would it effect their performance or would it be the one place in the world they felt comfortable. I have seen examples of both. But what about all the hours preceding the nights gig? How does a shy person manage the endless touring, interviews and fans?

In the case of Mark Kozelek, it was clear that he was not coping at all with his public.

On the second night (yes I am a freak and went twice) I waited around after the show to see if I could get to meet this fascinating songwriter and maybe get a CD signed. It was with great regret that I got my wish. A mere 5 minutes after the encore, with the crowd now thinned, Mark came wandering out. My sister and I wandered over to wait nearby as Mark signed someone's CD. He then turned to us and it was then that my heart just sank. Whatever he took backstage had worked very quickly. Far from the gregarious funny performer we saw on stage; we had before us a confused, shy and paranoid man who could barely see through his sunken eyelids.

The conversation was quipped, confused and teeth grindingly uncomfortable. Frankly I have done everything I can to forget the incident so I don't lose that feeling I get listening to his music.

Why do these people do what appears so uncomfortable to them? Why make a career that demands from then what they cannot deliver? Here is what Kozelek said in a recent interview about meeting his public-

"You find yourself acting strange. Sometimes when I’m on stage and I start rambling about my personal life or spilling my guts to some weird fan that’s gonna post what you said online in half an hour… it’s a weird world, a whole different thing. Being in that world where people are obsessed with you is strange, idiosyncratic and exclusive."

And perhaps even more telling, this quote -

"Sometimes, even though you’re out there playing for 500 or 1000 people, so for two hours you sort of have the world in your hands, but in a second those people are out the door, on trains. And I’m backstage with the club guy, who really just wants you to get the fuck out of there because he has to do the same thing tomorrow night, and all of a sudden you’re in a cab and in a hotel room, jet lagged, fucking lonely as hell, and you can’t call anyone ‘cause it’s fucking expensive and it’s some weird hour somewhere else."

Its a tough industry. And from what I have heard from some inside sources it appears drugs are offered to these guys regularly, even by the record companies themselves. I think even the most together artist must give in at some stage. Travelling so much of the year it is hard to keep yourself grounded. Perhaps this is what my parents saw for my future and hoped for something better.

Have you heard any stories of artists who have just not coped with touring? Send us your comments.

Wrong side of the bed - the proof

2008-07-29T09:04:00.006+10:00

I really love the Internet, don’t you? I thought so. God we are so alike. We are becoming quite close aren't we. Like two pees in a pod. Next I will be calling you dude or lovey.

One of the purposes of this Blog is to write about interesting things and see what the wider web world has to say on the subject. A simple search on most topics will provide at least something of interest. It may not be factual, possible or true but dag nab it you can find some funny stuff out there.

Here is an example. This morning I am feeling tired and unmotivated because I only got 5 hours sleep last night. The thought of having to come up with something to write about made me want to just crawl under my desk and go 'in utero'. I then remembered that I wrote down some possible subjects to write in a kind of rainy day file. One that particularly struck me this morning was the entry - 'Getting out of the wrong side of the bed. Is this testable?'

Perfect! They say you should write about what you know. It got me thinking whether anybody else has thought about this. Surely there is some evidence out there that getting out of the wrong side of the bed can ruin your day.

Well I was wrong, and yet…….

I found this blog called The Smartest Man Online. In a boldly titled post 'Explanation : Wrong Side of the Bed' he notes that there are four cycles of REM (WARNING: from this point on I offer you my own interpretation) in which it is akin to a football match in that the game must only conclude at the end of the fourth quarter. To interrupt this cycle is to break the rules.

You see the sleeping individual requires a cycle of shallow sleep in order for the body to be fully charged. Actually its more like a phone charger isn't it. If you don’t complete the charging cycle you get much less workable use from the phone later in the day. This is all good and I understand the logic. But it does'nt explain anything pertaining to the side of the bed you get out of. He has merely argued that its no fun being woken up early. Well duh!

Time to move on. Thankfully my return to Google provided me some more valuable information. Over at The Divine Caroline we finally get some solid proof. She reports that the Premier Hotel Chain commissioned a study to answer this very question. Bless their cotton sheets. The study concluded that it was in fact the LEFT side that ensured us the perfect start to the day. Read a little further and you discover that it was a dazzling combination of psychology and feng shui that lead to this conclusion. You see the left side of the brain is your rational and logical hemisphere while the filthy right side is all juiced up on emotions and imagination. So the logical (and clearly scientific) conclusion is that you should roll out of the bed on the left side and this will chemically switch on the good side of your brain. The actual detail or proof for all this is very dry stuff so lets just agree to agree shall we? As for the feng shui, well apparently Left is much better. Ok, cool. Yay for left.

But here is something I pondered. And reading further I see The Divine Caroline also did. If the left hemisphere looks after the right side of the body and vice versa, shouldn’t you be rolling out the right side if you are using your left hemisphere? The overall theory I'm sure we can all agree is perfectly sound, but this missed detail is just alarming. I am left even more confused and distressed than when I first read it. I need a nap but im too scared to get in the wrong side too.

Its seems clear that there is only one course of action left to us. From this day on I intend on getting in and out from the end of the bed, and thus ensuring a karmically balanced start to the morning. Rather than being too logical, or too emotional, I will be centred and at one with the universe.

And God save the souls of those with a bed like this. For truly theirs is a bleak and uncertain future.

Speaking of spam - the story of Charlie

2008-07-28T13:55:00.000+10:00

A year or so ago, a friend and I set out to create the ultimate chain email. We wanted it to have all those essential elements: pathos, wish-granting, guilt tripping, and rhyming.

---
This is the saddest email I have ever read ever! Serious guys, I'm not joking on this one. If you don't burst into tears after reading this, you're an awful person.

POOR CHARLIE

Saturday is a busy day
It's time for the football game
So Charlie raced out of the door
His father did the same

He rushed towards the family car
And sat down on the seat
And impatiently waited for his dad
While wiggling his feet

Too busy to have breakfast
Too busy to comb his hair
Too busy to check the computer
And the email that waited there

So Charlie played his football
And kicked ten thousand points
Although he hurt his kicking foot
And other assorted joints

But for all his youthful vigour
And his cheeky boyish grin
Little did poor Charlie know
That fate was coming for him

He checked his computer once more
But off to the living room he went
Because 'Idol' was on the tv
And the email remained unsent

Had he taken notice
Had he read it to the end
He would have understood the sad email
Sent to him by his friend

He didn't read the story
He didn't send it on
And slowly, very slowly
All his good luck shall be gone

For chain emails are a powerful thing
As Charlie did find out
The bad luck that awaited him
Was enough to make you shout...

"Oh no, not poor young Charlie
He's such a brave little guy
He's such a little trooper
Why did he have to die?"

That's right, poor Charlie carked it
He got cancer in his bowel
Then got a bout of syphilis
- please don't ask us how

And then he tripped down the stairs
And broke his upper left thigh
And as he lay there in agony
He wished he had replied-

-To that simple little message
"Had I only passed it on
I wouldn't be here dying
With chille stains on my shirt

I must have hit my head" he said
"I've clearly got concussion.
No longer am I rhyming well
Or speaking in correct pies"

As little Charlie passed away
Ducks nibbling at his spleen
And rats sneaking into his bowels for warmth
His toes were turning green

And from his foaming trembling lips
These last words did he moan
"if you don't reply to chain emails
you'll die horribly and alone... probably down some stairs or something."

SEND THIS TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU! PLEASE! THIS COULD CHANGE THE WORLD! THE MORE PEOPLE THE BETTER.

50 - Send this email to over 50 people, and Charlie will come to life again. You and he shall go on a magical journey to some far off land, and then have cake. Then of course he will have to die again to make room for the next person to send 50 emails.

20 - Send this on to 20 people and not only shall you be immune to cancer, but you'll also receive four billion dollars within seven seconds of sending it. Also, that huge crush that you once had will turn up to your door and immediately propose to you.

10 - Send this on to 10 people and you will develop duck repellent qualities. Furthermore to that, you will never ever spill chille on your favourite shirt. Your crush will come to your door and say something to do with avacados, but you were too busy staring in awe at them that you weren't really listening. You'll find a fifty dollar note on the street, but then you'll probably just spend it on food or something, which makes it a kind of waste, because it all ends up in the toilet in the end anyway.

5 - Send this to 5 people and you will have an erotic dream about your crush that night. At least you think it's them, because the person's face isn't quite the same and they change gender from time to time. Nevertheless it will be a happy dream. You will also find an empty bottle on the street while you walk to work which you can cash in for about twenty cents and the recycling shop. You'll see a rat around the corner, but then you'll keep walking and forget about it about four seconds later.

4 - Send this email to 4 people and we'll give you a free upsize to 5, THIS WEEK ONLY!!

< 4 - Send this email to less than 4 people and you'll most likely trip over some hobo on the way to work and have to clean bodily fluids off your favorite suit for the rest of the day.

0 - If you refuse to send this email to anyone, because you're lazy, or insensitive or just don't have any fingers, then you will die a horrible, horrible death.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't believe us? Check out these fantastic testimonials:

"Hi, My name is Fred Tompson. I read this email and was so moved by the story of Charlie that I immediately forwarded it to 24 people. The next day I became the richest man in the world by selling immitation sardines over the internet. I'm also married to the most beautiful woman in the world, and we make sweet love once every seven minutes. I owe it all to clicking my mouse button a few times and thinking of Charlie."

***

"Tootles! Jeanette Winterbottom's the name. I am a teacher of Information Technology at Darbishire Elementary College. We recently had one of our students die from witholding Chain emails from the community. Among the symptons included a broken pancreas, dislocated brain, a bit of a backache after dinner, and the distinct smell of duck poo. I now use this email as a criteria for all my student's gradings and have found it successful in reducing the ammount of rat-related deaths in the college by 37% Since implementing the program, all unexpected in-class fatalities were the result of other phenomenon and not this email. Thank you Charlie!"

***

"Hi, I'm Brett. I received this email, and deleted it. now I'm dead."

***

"I'm Ted Lowry. I received this email, and sent it to only 7 people. As I was walking to work the next day, I found an old CD on the road. I tried to play it, but it was really too scratched to get any real melodies. I kept it around the office for a few more days, but then I threw it out and bought a sandwich. God bless you Charlie!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you can see, the power of this email is astronomical. So prove to yourself and to your friends that you are a good person, and not a selfish one. Send this to as many people as you can. And if you don't have enough friends to send this email to, then you're probably an awful person and deserve all the bad luck coming to you.

But now here's the best bit. Before you press send, think of Charlie, count to five and make a wish.

>
>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>> 5!
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>> 4!
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>> 3!
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>> 3!
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>> 1!
>>>>
>>>
>>
>

Ooops, it must have got wet. But perhaps if you wait a little while, then your wish is 46% certain to be absolutely GUARANTEED to come true!

Raising hopes more than boats

2008-07-24T14:12:00.004+10:00

I got this sent to me via email the other day. It's one of those thousands of mails you get sent with a feel good message that if you have bothered to read to the end tell you a small child in Borneo will die if you don't annoy 10 more friends by forwarding it to them.

So im saving myself the time and posting it here instead.

A Japanese freighter had been torpedoed during WWII and it's at the bottom of Tokyo Harbor with a large hole in her hull. A team of engineers was called together to solve the problem of raising the wounded vessel to the surface. One of the engineers tackling this puzzle said he remembered seeing a Donald Duck cartoon when he was a boy where there was a boat at the bottom of the ocean with a hole in its hull, and they injected it with ping-pong balls and it floated up. The skeptical group laughed but one of the experts was willing to give it a try. Of course, where in the world would you find twenty million ping-pong balls but in Tokyo? It turned out to be the perfect solution. The balls were injected into the hull and it floated to the surface, the engineer was altered. Moral- solutions to problems are always found at an entirely different level; also, believe in yourself in the face of impossible odds.

My burgeoning skeptic mind was brimming at this one and I was interested to see if this would actually be possible. I found an episode of myth busters here that tested this very story for its validity. It turns out that this is actually a plausible scenario. However during their testing they discovered that for even a relatively small vessel the number of ping pong balls required would be astronomical. And the other issue was that the ping pong balls kept finding escape routes. Here is a picture of WW2 Japanese freighter the 'Okikawa Maru'. You would expect after such a long time at the bottom of the ocean that the integrity of this structure would be a little shaky. It would be riddled with gaping holes. Also the hull would likely be isolated in separate walled off sections to prevent it sinking. So it would take multiple entry points to pump the ping pongs at the same time otherwise you risk only one end rising. This may work on a small boat that is still intact however using this method to raise a rusted old freighter would be virtually impossible.

Now please pass this post on to 10 people or 300 kittens will be drowned........... by me!

Kiddy vampires and how they get made.

2008-07-24T10:14:00.011+10:00

We are not prone to endorsing products on this blog however given what we are seeing with our own eyes we feel compelled, perhaps even forced, to give this product our full support. Our mortal souls depend on it.

A selling feature of his wonderful new instant digitally controled hot water service is that it prevents your babies from getting burnt if they play with the hot water tap. What they don't tell you is that this kind of water leads to infant vampirism. Check out the photo on the box.

I guess even the undead need to keep clean.

I thought it might be interesting after viewing this to google (as is our want) 'vampire children'. I came across this post. The post itself was weird enough however even more disturbing was one of the comments down below by Falcc. Falcc had some thoughful comments to make about the misunderstood subject of Vampire sex. Thank God we have the likes of Falcc to inform us of what really goes on in the average bloodsuckers bedroom -

"It’s my personal theory that Vampires, generally getting it on a lot with mortals and each other are probably sterile in the traditional sense, but since they’re magical anyways can probably impregnate with some weird blood ritual after sex. Then the kids are born human and they change them once they get older. Thus explaining away all the plot holes without thinking too much."

Phew, thanks Falcc. It all makes sense now.

World Youth Day roundup - a poke at the Pope

2008-07-23T07:56:00.003+10:00

For those of you who live somewhere other than Australia you may not realise that Sydney recently become the epicentre of all things Catholic. World Youth Day, whatever it actually is, kicked off with a concert of truly biblical proportions. It featured the best Christian talent the Catholics could afford such as Guy Sebastian, Damien Leith (representing the Irish protestants) and Shannon Noll (yeah, me neither).

It has come at a time of dwindling sales for the organisation. Church attendance is down and conversions are at an all time low. Some are even claiming that the fastest growing faith in Western countries is ‘None’. Those that fit in the 'None' category being Atheist, Agnostic, Jedi, Wizard or just none of the above.

What this all says is that Catholicism, as well as some other notable religions, are about as popular as Windows Vista right now. Even a recent MySpace poll (so you know its reputable) has shown a vast number of youth feel the Church is out of touch. I guess they haven’t made their way to godtube.com yet................... Cause its really cool, man.

Down here in Australia it proved impossible to find any television station not devoting (pun intended) half their news time to the goings on of these pimply purveyors of papal prophesying. Behind every flustered reporter in the streets of Sydney were 300 of the little dears singing ‘God said to Noah’ at the top of their lungs. I guess we were all warned there was going to be a floody floody of pilgrims arriving on our shores.

Something that struck me as quite strange when watching this footage was all the flag flying going on. I couldn't help pondering to myself why the Nationalism on top of the Catholicism? Is it more prevalent for the faithful to feel the need to fit themselves into tidy little categories? Everyone likes to feel like they belong but these lot seem to crave belongingness like it was heroin . It would be an interesting thing to poll who are the most nationalistic people. I would bet my soul that it would be the faith based. Perhaps I should contact MySpace with the idea.

But what is this festival actually teaching us about the religion? What is it trying to convey to us in real terms? I cant help but think that part of this is just clever marketing to aid indoctrinating the youth which, lets face it, find little practicality or commonality with the faith at the moment. But how do parades and parties give the non-believers some insight into why people show up to Church each Sunday to do everything but have parades and parties. Showing us how nice people can behave in a festival atmosphere is hardly a cause for celebrating the faith. Who isn't happy when they don't have to go to work? I have seen the same camaraderie at a football clubs end of season Bali trip.

Another thing I noticed a lot from pilgrims was their consistent use of meaningless church lingo like “we are so blessed”or “filled with the spirit of the Lord” and most notable “spontaneous joy”. Spontaneous joy? What does that actually mean?

I guess in the end most people will say that it was lovely to see the young’uns not getting drunk and violent or sexting each other on their mobiles (look it up). But this kind of logic belongs to older people who think that this kind of stereotype is right on the money. But it isn’t people, it really isn’t. So we should not base the success of this week on the grounds that nothing nasty happened, because normally it doesn’t anyway. All these supposed good qualities that religion sell’s itself on are also found outside the religion in equal measure. They don’t own the patent on goodness. It is innately within us all despite our faith or lack thereof.

We would have been better off having a praise Mother Earth Week than this. Because let’s face it. Like our own Mothers, its puts up with a lot of shit from us.

Tuesday Tech Tune

2008-07-22T10:14:00.003+10:00

This week on Tuesday Tech Tune we have New Wave sensations Ultravox! The song is 'I want to be a machine'.

They were actually originally known as Tiger Lily, I wonder if this is where the Hutchens' got the idea from. There is a real Bowie vibe to this song.

One of its later additions Midge Ure, while being an accomplished musician, is the co-writer and producer of Band Aid single 'Do they know its Christmas' (i will add this video below just in case you have not had the pleasure of seeing this clip). Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is up to you I guess.

So lets hear what the boys have to teach us about technology. Open your notebooks and keep your pens poised to note down such gems of wisdom as -

"I walked at boulevards again
A nebula of unfinished creatures
From the lifetimes of my friends
I hope your innocence has depraved me"

Has iPod killed the wandering mind?

2008-07-21T10:34:00.004+10:00

I just bought some amazing Sennheiser headphones a few weeks back and have marvelled at the difference between these and the standard iPod supplied ones. We are talking chalk and cheese here. I was frankly gobsmacked. I think I might be in love.

Unfortunately I was pulling the right bud out of my ear quickly when the wire detached itself from the speaker end. I was devastated and promptly took them to JB Hifi to get a replacement. To my disgust they refused to do so and have sent them to the manufacturer to 'assess' them.

How ridiculous. What is there to assess? As far as I'm concerned when you pull a speaker bud out of your ear the wiring should be strong enough to deal with it. At a cost of $80 you expect a certain level of hardiness and quality.

So while I wait the 4 to 6 weeks I am back to my old pair (grrr). The problem being that they were at work, so for the first time since I bought the iPod I was without sounds for my 35 minute walk to the station.

Without the sweet company of Nick Drake or the latest You Look Nice Today podcast I was unfortunately left alone with my mind. It was an uncomfortable experience and we were both very nervous, like two acquaintances left in a room together with nothing to say to each other.

Given I was such poor company, my mind began to wander. All manner of subjects of minor interest popped in for a visit then popped out again. After a little while of observing my minds rambling it struck me that it had been some time since we had daydreamed together. It then occurred to me that this would be due to the iPod. I realised that when I am not on-task at work, on-line on the computer or on-the-floor with my daughter I am plugged-in to my iPod.

It works out that I leave virtually no intervening time to simply let my mind wander.

It made me question what are the benefits and drawbacks to being focused on things all the time. Is there possible damage in not allowing for daydream time?
I googled the question - What are the benefits of daydreaming? I clicked on one of the results and came across this article .

Essentially it says that daydreaming is really good for you. It aids stress management, motivates you with difficult jobs and improves concentration. I would have thought that listening to great music or thought provoking podcasts would be just as useful in these areas. Music can motivate you and a really interesting Podcast like the ABC's All In The Mind requires a good deal of concentration to take in all the information.

My other thought was that by denying myself daydream and mind wandering time I could be missing out on some really interesting ideas. I know as a songwriter that many of my arrangements come from daydreaming in that I hear the completed piece in my head with all the combined instruments. I also came up with the idea for this post while daydreaming. Whether you find it a genuine SOI or not I would never have come up with it had I been listening to my iPod.

It makes me think (when i have stopped listening to The Carpenters that is) what studies are being done to determine the psychological impacts of not allowing your mind to wander each day?

The Rock-Off Fairness Fallacy

2008-07-20T20:26:00.007+10:00

I've noticed that there is an increasing trend for people to resolve disputes or allocate resources using the game of Rock Paper Scissors. The procedure is sometimes called a 'rock-off', as in "let's rock-off for the last slice of pizza"

This procedure is fine in a two person game (assuming no one cheats), but I often see people happily submitting to three-way rock-off's. In these arrangements two people rock-off, then the third person plays the winner, and the winner of that second rock-off is declared the overall winner.

But this procedure is inherently unfair!

Imagine that John, Fred, and Mary are rocking-off for a slice of pizza. John and Fred play first. Mary plays the winner.

For John to win overall he has to win the first encounter against Fred and then a subsequent encounter against Mary. John has a .5 probability of winning the first time and .5 probability of winning the second time. .5 x .5 = .25, so he has a 25% chance of winning the pizza.

The same applies for Fred. He has to win first against John and then against Mary. Both times he has a .5 probability of winning, .5 x .5 = .25, so he too has a 25% chance of winning the pizza.

But Mary, she gets it easy. No matter what happens she only has to play once. Regardless of whether she's playing John or Fred she has a .5 probability of winning that rock off. So her chance of winning the pizza is 50%.

Mary has double the chance of winning overall because she only plays the winner. Great if you're Mary, bad if you're John or Fred.

Better to just draw straws.

Mark finds a new religion & our regular Tuesday Tech Tune

2008-07-15T11:43:00.005+10:00

iPhone therfore I am

It was a big day in this nerd's life this past Friday. Finally, finally the iPhone arrived in Australia and I had the good fortune of picking up the 8gig model. (I got the last one at The Glen without having to queue.)

For me, the iPhone is the last piece in the puzzle. Now I'm a connected and fully operational nerd everywhere I go, from a trip to the supermarket to a trip to the loo.

Yes, I'm one of those people who likes to be technofied all the time.

People have tried to ween me off the gadegts, the theory being that within every computer geek is a hippy trying to get out. Such attempts always backfire.

The funny thing is I was fine with the digital deprivation . It was the intervening friends and family that couldn't handle the truth.

They just couldn't cope with the reality that without my widgits and doodads I was just a redhead with a penchant for decaffinated cola beverages. No hippy emerged. No appreciation for soy products developed. All there was was a bloke with eerily cold data starved eyes staring back at you. Many were driven to madness.

So yes, I got an iPhone and I highly recommend you do too. And if your associates tell you to wake up and smell the roses tell them to wake up and smell the wifi, then capture their indignation on your lovely new iPhone camera.

Sent from Marks iPhone

On this weeks Tuesday Tech Tune, your weekly dose of songs about technology, we have the inimitable Kraftwerk.

I couldn't help myself I just had to add a few of the comments in You tube under this clip. If you can find a better example of geek humour then I will eat Stephen Hawking's left foot.

hyberpolo - 0100101101010110101011010011110101110101!!!!

Applemask - I don't understand your accent. However, 01011001010011110101010101010010001000000100110101 00111101010100010010000100010101010010.

Bill Henson and Art Monthly Australia - bully for them

2008-07-10T14:04:00.000+10:00

SPECIAL NOTE. This post contains an exclusive interview with Blogging Royalty 'The Eye'.

It is not often that a piece of art has the kind of impact that sees it transcend the subject matter itself, and become so much more. Art can in these cases lead to some pretty big questions being asked and some very heated debates. It can make us question how far freedom of expression is allowed and whether an artist needs to enforce some kind of self regulation. It also makes us as a society ask ourselves what kind of responsibility we have when art has crossed some kind of perceived moral line in the sand. It is a rare thing indeed when one of the so called respectable arts can make this kind of front page impact. That sort of attention is usually left to the more mainstream artists. "Which pop singer has had another drug induced meltdown?" "Which socialite has released a follow-up homemade porn video? More at 6."

In the case of Bill Henson’s latest exhibition, it is the repercussions for the subject matter herself that leave us at SOI to wonder who was there to consider her safety?

About a month ago a series of artist Bill Henson photographs depicting a nude underage girl sparked an emotional national debate about censorship and the sexualisation of children. In fact when news of the exhibition broke, the gallery displaying the work was inundated with angry calls, some threatening to burn down the building. Child exploitation is a highly emotional subject and one that has recently been on the radar for a number of reasons. The timing could not have been worse for Henson given the recent outrage over a Myley Cyruss topless shots (the 15-year-old star of Disney hit TV show Hannah Montana ) and more recently the mass arrests over child pornography. And now we have a brand new controversy just making news over the retaliatory shots of a six year old girl on the cover of a petulant Art Monthly Australia in what is essentially the printed version of poking your tongue out. What makes it even worse is that these shots are just plain crap.

Recently we have seen the NSW police abandon their questionable case against the artist, I doubt many people truly believed that Henson’s intention was to create child pornography. Nor do many view the work as pornography, but is this really the point?

To our way of thinking the bigger issue comes down to the manipulation of the child involved rather than the fear of less savoury individuals viewing these images for purposes far from innocent. The fact is these people will pick up a Target catalogue and see something vastly different than what was intended. Our issue with all this comes down to something far more practical.

It turns out that the girl in the photos parents are friends of Henson. It was while at a dinner party together that he brought up the possibility of using their daughter as a model. Now you can see just how enticing this would be to the parents involved. It is likely that they are not artists themselves so the idea of having their daughter immortalised by one of Australia’s leading photographers would be absolutely thrilling. I can see the excitement in their faces as they clink champagne glasses to seal the deal.

I would suggest at this point that many of us are now wondering how much time was actually spent discussing the possible down side of this venture. The biggest question that comes to mind is what happens when the other kids from her school discover (which indeed they now have) that they are now the proud owners of nude pictures of their school chum. It doesn’t take a vast stretch of the imagination to work out what the other kids at school will do to her. One word springs to mind – bullying.

Art is at its heart subjective and the intent of an artist can get lost or even ignored. Lolita author Vladimir Nabokov experienced a shocking lesson in this very thing when he opened the front door at Halloween to find two girls dressed as his nymphet creation asking for candy. So you can just imagine what sort of things these kids, who lets face it, can be horribly cruel will say about these images. All discussion of artistic merit and the beauty of innocence is completely and utterly mute here.

Forget pornography, forget the perverts, forget artistic merit, forget censorship. If the parents of this girl can tell me that the children she goes to school with have not teased, taunted and bullied her in any way; if this does not taint her reputation in that school for years to come. Then I will apologise.

I ask again, is ANYONE let alone the parents considering this outcome? I just wonder how smug they are going to feel when she comes home from school one day and runs crying into their arms.

Mark's $0.02

Hi, Mark here.

Look, for me this issue is really simple. It's not about the definition of pornography, it's not about censorship, it's just about consent. Consent, consent, consent. Kids can't make this kind of decision for themselves, and given that it's conceivable that a child may regret it in the future, why should a parent consent on behalf of their child? And for that matter why should an artist accept that consent?

It wouldn't pass the ethics committee at my university.

I think a big problem with this debate is that people confuse morals with ethics, a topic which i will post on in the future. - Mark

And now our exclusive interview with The Eye.

We chat with the creator of 'Eye On Big Brother' fame. This year his informative posts on Australian Big Brother '08 have really struck a chord with people. Listen to this interview and you will understand why. This is one smart fella. Dont forget to go check out his site here.

Here is the interview -henson.mp3

Dont forget to subscribe to this blog (top right of page) as we hope The Eye will return soon.

Musical Terrorism - Nobody is safe

2008-07-09T10:40:00.001+10:00

Mark and I have decided to take our relationship to the next level. That's right, we are sharing our iTunes playlists. A big step granted, but an important one to keep the blog fires burning.

We are using a spunky little program called Mojo which enables us to download tracks across a local network or the Internet. The only downside to this is that it eats away our upload allowance if you get charged for going both ways (just count the double entendres).

Here comes the disturbing twist to the tale. Upon gaining access to Marks musique ensemble d'objets I discovered an interesting pattern. None of his playlists were just of a single album. Instead there abound playlist after playlist of jumbled mixes based on complex strings of filtered madness. Looking in the edit section of just one and I started getting dizzy. I felt like I was in a scene from The Cube.

Where was his Artist or Album playlists? I couldn't take it in. My head was swimming. Where was his Radiohead only playlist? Where was Pet Sounds, Music From Big Pink, Revolver? There appeared no band loyalty whatsoever. Rather the lists focused on randomness and file sizes and least played.

He uses the so called 'Smart' playlist option in iTunes to create these acts of musical terrorism. I say terrorism because that's what it is. He and the rest of his fickle generation of musical Pol Pots are destroying the Album as we know it every time they unleash on of these little mixed menaces onto the online community.

Well enough is enough. Its time for other like minded album lovers to rise up and be counted. I propose an army of iPod Police; making random playlist searches and giving on the spot fines for anyone taking the concept too far.

Further to this I propose a three strikes and your out rule; followed by intense rehabilitation. I'm thinking solitary confinement rooms filled with bean bags, gigantic headphones, a turntable and a couple of milk crates filled with Rolling Stone magazines 'Top 100 Rock albums of all time'.

All that is necessary for the perpetuation of pernicious playlists is if good people do nothing.

I bless you in the name of the Godfather, the Sun-Kil-Moon and the Spirit of the rock and roll.

Friday Affettuoso

2008-07-05T14:19:00.000+10:00

Affettuoso - affectionate, with tender warmth

I begin what is to become a regular weekly Friday posting in which we explore the mating habits of various species - called the Friday Affettuoso. This week we uncover the oceans answer to John Holmes - the barnacle.

Who would have guessed that the crap sticking to the hull of your precious Catamaran is in actuality the most well endowed species in the animal kingdom.

Inflating to around 50 times the length of its body, this crusty little bugger has it covered in the trouser sea-snake department.

The crustacean, once lodged, does not move for the remainder of its life. So it is important that it lands itself close to its kind. The barnacle has both male and female reproductive organs but it does not impregnate itself and will never be its own grandpa like this guy.

What the barnacle does to is whip out its massive appendage and like a Japanese commuter on an over crowded train, starts to probe its surroundings for a suitable mate with no escape route.

Once the host has been discovered and some lovely decorative coral has changed tentacles, the barnacle deposits its sperm and promises to call.

A truly beautiful arrangement. Who would have thought the Love Boat's real action took place under-hull rather than under-deck.

Nicafaith CQ (repost from the Pierian Puddle)

2008-07-04T10:33:00.000+10:00

While we set up the subjects of interest blog, here's a repost from my other blog to give you something to read. Enjoy - Mark

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, made some comments recently about which elements of the Christmas story are important to believe in and which ones aren't. (I heard about this via Lee's post over on the 'Thinking Outside The Cage' blog.)

The Archbishop says he doesn't believe that a star literally guided three wise men to Bethlehem. This, apparently, is not an essential miracle to believe in. Furthermore, according to The Age, Dr Williams said that "while he believed in it himself, new Christians need not leap over the "hurdle" of belief in the virgin birth before they could join the church".

Interesting.

In marketing his very relaxed and moderate brand of religion, Dr Williams might hope that religion might capture a greater market share. It's a 'lite' version of faith, now 99% miracle free; a Diet Faith for those people who would like to take up religion but have previously found some elements hard to swallow.

I wonder, though, if moderate, diluted religion ends up playing quiet a different role? I wonder if it might serve as the religious equivalent of a nicotine patch; an intermediate step, not into religion (as Williams might hope), but out of it. Are Williams, and other moderates, creating a form of belief for those who are finding religiosity less and less compatible with the rest of their lives, but can't (for one reason or another) bare to go 'cold turkey'? And might this ultimately lose them more of the flock?

How much, I wonder, do either side of the believe divide know about how religious ideas play out in the minds of people in the long-term, and which are ultimately the best at capturing hearts and minds?

A religion worth killing for

2008-07-01T20:38:00.000+10:00

I have spent some time in meditation over my spiritual future and after some careful googling i have found the perfect faith.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster (also known as the Spaghedeity) is the deity of a religion called The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and its system of beliefs, "Pastafarianism". The religion was founded in 2005 by Bobby Henderson to protest the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to require the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biological evolution. Because intelligent design implies the existence of an intelligent, but not necessarily omnipotent or omniscient designer, some, like Henderson, argued that this designer could, in fact, be anything imaginable.

In an open letter sent to the education board, Henderson makes a mockery of the concept of an intelligent designer by professing belief in a supernatural creator called the Flying Spaghetti Monster which resembles spaghetti and meatballs.He furthermore calls for the "Pastafarian" theory of creation to be taught in science classrooms.