In response to The conundrum of atheism.

No-one kills people in the name of Santa Claus, or tells everyone else they can’t spend their life with the person they love, just because they are of the same gender.

How patronising to think we really think God exists but are pretending. To what end? Imagine if I used that argument on you and said you don’t really believe, but just pretend you do.

As for morals. They didnt “magically evolve”, they evolved. You, however, believe they magically appeared from God.

So called militant atheists are harmless. Militant theists are not. See this cartoon.http://friendlyatheist.com/2009/06/05/beware-the-militant-atheists/ to make it clear what I mean.

Got that off my chest.

Losing my humanity?

"And it came to pass at midnight, that Jehovah smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the first-born of cattle."

Exodus 12:21

For some reason, I have found myself talking to a few theists recently, or more specifically, Christians. The above quote from exodus is one reason (of many) that I left the church. So, it was interesting to ask them what they thought of the above passage.

Apart from the usual, "you are taking it out of context" answer, to which I say, "there is no context whatsoever that makes God's actions in Egypt morally justifiable", one answer in common was along the lines of, "God needed to show his power so that he would be respected"!

Anyone that uses that kind of violence to gain respect is not interested in respect, they are interested in fear. It is the justification a spouse uses when they use violence against their partner. God, of course, cannot bypass his own moral laws and commit genocide, unless he is a hypocrite, in which case why worship him?

Anyone who defends someone else's violence by saying they need to be respected and so need to show their wrath, has lost their instinctive ability to tell the difference between fear and respect. Is this the reasoning they would have used If one of the Egyptian parents had asked, "why did God kill my child?"

This reasoning, that is used to defend God's actions, is a sign of how far down the rabbit hole Christians have to be. They have lost that very human quality, empathy. Instead they look to the bible and their pastors for answers. They no longer trust their own thoughts and feelings, particularly if those thoughts and feelings are not seen, by their peers, to fit with the group-think that is their own church's interpretation of the bible.

If that kind of twisted logic is what is required to be a Christian, then I have made the right choice. I am right. I am free of that way of thinking and that I no longer have to twist my thoughts and feelings to obey any one particular church's interpretation of the angry whims of a jealous, spiteful, violent and abusive God.

Point to ponder. Why would an all-powerful God require a red mark above the door to distinguish households of his chosen people and those of the Egyptians? Other than to require absolute obedience (a very appealing characteristic, I'm sure) or to allow humans, who probably carried out the genocide, to tell which house was which.

iPad ... Not for me ... Just yet!

It appears, unusually, that Apple may have got their market research wrong which has led them to release the iPad before it is really ready.

Don't get me wrong. I think the iPad is probably the most beautiful piece of electronic equipment ever created in looks, the way it is seamless in it's functionality and in it's " holdability".

However, Steve Jobs has said that they were creating a new category of computer somewhere between a smart phone and a laptop and that netbooks just didn't do that properly.

Where do Apple think the Market is for this is? I have a smartphone (iPhone in fact) and a laptop already as do a lot of people. In fact most of us will still be tied into a mobile contract to pay for the iPhone. Apart from the big beautiful screen there is nothing that I can do on the iPad that I can't do between my iPhone and my laptop. Worse the iPad can't take over the joint functionality of both together.

And there's the rub. I don't think people wan't another category of computer. Certainly in my case I was hoping for something that would completely replace my iPhone and my laptop and perhaps, with the addition of a docking station, the desktop too.

The problem is that the iPad doesn't do that yet. Not even close.

To be more specific here are the things that would be needed before I think it could replace the smartphone and the laptop.

3G (coming in later models).
Multi-tasking.
Flash player.
Proper access to the file system.
Front mounted camera.
More memory.
More solid-state disk space.

Certainly, Apple will sell a lot of them to apple fans and to people that don't have an iPhone yet. Especially considering the low price. But it won't replace the laptop. Not yet.

That said. The iPad is definitely going to change the way that we all look at computers and the way we interact with them.

If Apple can deliver all of the above in the next year. The competition will be worried!

The Three Chimneys

Well, we went for it. We went to the three chimneys in Skye while on honeymoon. Here is what we had:

The 7(9) Courses of Skye

ENTREE: Bites: Mini Goats Cheese Bites

COMP: Soup: Watercress Soup with Creme Fraiche and Herring Roe

1: Prawns: Langoustines with Tattie Scones and Mesclun

2: Crab: Colbost Crab risotto with Shellfish Essence and truckle wafer

3: Smoked Fish: Selection of Broadford Smoked Fish with Croft Quail Eggs

4: Scallops: Sconser King Scallop with Hazelnut Crust, Pickled Winkles, Split pea and ham hough purry and Claret Jus

5: Oysters: Three Loch Harport Oysters with cucumber and mint jelly, home-made Creme Fraiche and smoked herring roe.

6: Lamb: Roast Glenshinnisdal lamb loin with Kidney, Heart, Sweetbread and Hairst Bree(Haggis)

COMP: Pre-Desert: Saffron Genovise with Pink Grapefruit Syrup

7: Souflee: Three Chimney Hot Marmalade Pudding Souffle with Drambuie Syrup and Mealie Ice Cream

(8): Cheese: Selection of Cheeses and oatcakes

All Accompanied by Rosemary Bread, Sourmilk bread and Seeded Bread

Finished with coffee, mini bakewells, chocolate coconut and tablet.

Neither of us quite felt up to the cheese course!

If we had gone for the soup and included the coffee as a course that adds up to 12 courses.

Price: Ahem!!!

Hey, It's a five star restaurant, one of the top 10 in the world. pick a number and probably double it! Well, we were on honeymoon!

It was definitely worth it.

"Fakery" at the Olympics

There have been countless stories about "fakery" during the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing. From the piano not being real and the singer being substituted, to some of the fireworks being CGI and the ethnic kids not being truly ethnic.

The opening of the Olympics games is a show, just like any other show. It's on a much grander scale perhaps, but it is a show none the less.

Shows are live. Things that are live have a knack of going wrong. Much of the production time of a show is put in to reducing the risk of things going wrong. That is why most shows have a prompter; It's why there are understudies; It's why we have rehearsals.

Shows are also fake. Nothing is real. Nothing! Anyone with a vague knowledge of putting on shows knows this. The acting is fake: The actress playing Juliet doesn't really kill herself (even method actors draw the line somewhere). The scenery is fake: That's not a real bus in Summer Holiday. Even the flying car in Chitty isn't really a car. It's a life-size model on wires. (Sorry to anyone who thought it was real).

And that mottled lighting effect in the woods in Babes in the wood? The stage crew open the roof and allow the sunlight to filter through the 5 large trees they have planted specially amongst the tabs. They really do. Honest! ;-)

As humans we have the amazing ability to suspend our disbelief even when given very little information, particularly with other humans. This ability is used all the time by directors/set builders/lighting crews/make up artists ...

Of course the piano was fake. It had to sit on a piece of flexible flooring because the flooring was lit from underneath to make the scroll work without any shadows from the people moving on top of it.

Of course some of the fireworks were CGI. They had to make sure they looked right when they were live in front of a massive audience. Also, the fireworks were set up but they felt it was unsafe to film them (see the paragraph at the bottom).

As long as the games are real I don't mind fakes at the opening ceremony.

Stephen Fry

I've been following Stephen Fry's new blog. He writes with humour and warmth about anything and everything but is a self confessed geek. He also has a new column in The Guardian.

He owned the second ever Mac in Europe (Douglas Adams owned the first) but uses Windows and Linux too. At last, someone of his standing saying it's not "either/or".

2004ol_grimwig

2004ol_grimwig
Originally uploaded by Stooshie.

Doctor Grimwig

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