Friday, May 19, 2006
Thursday, December 22, 2005
ACHTUNG! (If you're still here, & you are) - 5 REASONS NOT TO LEAVE THIS BLOG YET (unless you wanna see my photos first, if so click HERE now!
1. This blog is a warm & I hope witty refuge for you from all the sham & drudgery out there, oh yes
2. I'm a really nice guy, look at cute lickle puppy wuppy
3. I need the publicity, I am NOT ego driven, I have no ego to bruise, just like Mr.Spock (well that's my transendental ambition ultimately). Look , you can go now if you want, see if I care, but don't, please, please read reason three first...
4. Hi, reason four here. I'd just like to apologise for reason 3 there, on behalf of all us other reasons. Reason 2 obviously has issues that need to be explored. The reason I'd like you to stay is that if you have an interest in Life, The Multiverse & those rare moments in your life when you can see the dust we seldom see floating in the air as light streams through your window, & you think to yourself "awe/wonder", then maybe this is the blog for you, really...well for more than 5 seconds at least anyway. Long enough to go to reason 4 maybe?
5. Four here, glad you could make it. So, also, if you are curious to learn/discuss/teach me why Intelligent Design is really silly, Evolution, Spirituality, Digital Photography (Flickr especially), The Strange, The Ridiculous, The Quirky, The Bizarre, Good Movies, Good Music, Human Origins, The Cosmos (Mars especially), how to manipulate URL/HTML (cue my anguished screams), & having a guffaw at George Dubya's expense, well then you'd best stay around here a while, maybe bookmark me, leave a comment even. Not that I ABSOLUTELY CRAVE FEEDBACK, no. Not really. Not at all. No way...
6. OK, so there's a sixth reason, but it's absolutely the one & only time I'll EVER LIE TO YOU. Also, if you are still reading you have just significantly improved my blog stats for which I thank you sincerely, say have we not met before, at that weird party, the one where you woke up in a wardrobe? Maybe not. And oh yes, I nearly forgot, that CUTE LITTLE PUPPY IN THE SANTA HAT will NOT be put in a cardboard box & left on the side of the road in the freezing New Year's rain after Christmas....IF you stay a while. Ok so now Christmas is a distant memory, but he's still cute, (if a bit bigger now) & I've found a bigger box...
Cyberegards
Steiner62
2. I'm a really nice guy, look at cute lickle puppy wuppy
3. I need the publicity, I am NOT ego driven, I have no ego to bruise, just like Mr.Spock (well that's my transendental ambition ultimately). Look , you can go now if you want, see if I care, but don't, please, please read reason three first...
4. Hi, reason four here. I'd just like to apologise for reason 3 there, on behalf of all us other reasons. Reason 2 obviously has issues that need to be explored. The reason I'd like you to stay is that if you have an interest in Life, The Multiverse & those rare moments in your life when you can see the dust we seldom see floating in the air as light streams through your window, & you think to yourself "awe/wonder", then maybe this is the blog for you, really...well for more than 5 seconds at least anyway. Long enough to go to reason 4 maybe?
5. Four here, glad you could make it. So, also, if you are curious to learn/discuss/teach me why Intelligent Design is really silly, Evolution, Spirituality, Digital Photography (Flickr especially), The Strange, The Ridiculous, The Quirky, The Bizarre, Good Movies, Good Music, Human Origins, The Cosmos (Mars especially), how to manipulate URL/HTML (cue my anguished screams), & having a guffaw at George Dubya's expense, well then you'd best stay around here a while, maybe bookmark me, leave a comment even. Not that I ABSOLUTELY CRAVE FEEDBACK, no. Not really. Not at all. No way...
6. OK, so there's a sixth reason, but it's absolutely the one & only time I'll EVER LIE TO YOU. Also, if you are still reading you have just significantly improved my blog stats for which I thank you sincerely, say have we not met before, at that weird party, the one where you woke up in a wardrobe? Maybe not. And oh yes, I nearly forgot, that CUTE LITTLE PUPPY IN THE SANTA HAT will NOT be put in a cardboard box & left on the side of the road in the freezing New Year's rain after Christmas....IF you stay a while. Ok so now Christmas is a distant memory, but he's still cute, (if a bit bigger now) & I've found a bigger box...
Cyberegards
Steiner62
STOP PRESS - Intelligent Design is not evolving! (It's Official)
PRAISE THE LORD!
(Charles Darwin)
(Charles Darwin)
Teaching of 'Intelligent Design' is outlawed...
The campaign to try to force schools in America to teach an alternative to Darwinism has suffered a severe setback after a judge ruled that to do so is a violation of the US constitution.
The Judge also said that proponents of the so-called "Intelligent Design" (ID) theory had repeatedly LIED about the religious convictions that drove them.
In a ruling that will reverberate throughout the country, District Judge John Jones ruled the Dover school board in Pennsylvania had been WRONG to ibsist a statement about ID be read to pupils during biology classes. He said the policy represented "BREATHTAKING INANITY".
" The citizens of Dover area were poorly served by the members of the boardwho voted for the ID policy", the judge wrote, following a six week trial. "It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly & proudly touted thier religious convictions in public, would, time & again, lie to cover up thier tracks & disguise the real purpose behind ID policy".
The ruling is a blow to Christian conservatives who, in more than 30 states, have been pressing for the teaching of Creationism. Many of the members oif the Dover school board which voted for the measure were fundamentalist Christians.
Proponents of Intelligent Design claim life is too complicated to have been created by accident. Opponents say that it is a little-disguised version of Creatonism, which the Supreme Court has previously ruled should not be taught in schools...
HALLELUJA!!!
Friday, October 28, 2005
About 500 Million years ago on an ancient Cambrian shallow seafloor a little creature was buried by an underwater mudslide & preserved for posterity
This little Arthropod, called Marrella Splendens by Paleontologiists, was discovered in The Burgess Shale Fossil Motherlode on a mountainside in present day British Columbia (that's in Canada, George). It represents real evidence, just one among millions of similar fossils that act as an exquisite repost to the non-science non-sense of so called "Intelligent Design" 
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
A Mission Statement & A Disclaimer
A Mission Statement
The "internet" cannot be held responsible for it's content. That's down to us. You DO realise that RIGHT NOW we are living through The Golden Age of the World Wide Web? Already the freedom to do what I am doing right now, is denied to well over over a billion people in China. No www.internet.com there. No Siree. Think about that. If the Chinese Government can block over a billion (1,300,000,000, that many) then anybody anywhere can be potentially erased from the www. The People's Republic Of China, hmm. People's Republic? Yea, right. Yet we turn a blind eye to this. Virtually everything we buy now seems to have "Made In China" stamped on it. Not just the cheapo plastic toys anymore. Expensive stuff too. Most of us buy it anyway (I know I do, somewhat guiltily). We seem to have let time bury our conscience too as far as Tianamen Square in June 1989 goe's too. How long before the Western Powers start to Firewall us/Deny us Access/Spam us - to oblivion? Already, 1.3 Billion people in China cannot read this. Of course all right minded, free* & decent people would like to put an end to this Shiteology. Maybe the army of bloggers (30 million is it in Oct 2005?) now tapping away as I tap will be on the next front line after China has been lost to the rest of us, & us from them. Will George Dubya's so called War On Terror help? I don't think so...
So here's to that Golden Age, our last wonderful Indian Summer of Blogging Bliss on the World Wide Web. Long may it last...
Worse luck, I've just started my blog this month (October 2005 at the time of typing), so I better make the most of it & enjoy it & make some new friends as we all should while we're still able to...
That is my Mission...
Now please do me the honour of reading my statements...
Steiner62
Ocober 2005
*The ordinary decent people of Iraq, Iran, Syria, China, North Korea, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan & Saudi Arabia et al still await positive developments in this respect...
A Disclaimer
To anybody in a position of power or influence whom I libel in this web log I can only say this much. It was'nt me. They made me do it. Please don't take my headset, not the headset.
Any similarities between people alive or dead that I mention in this blog with any real or fictional characters may or may not be entirely intentional or semi-intentional. If it goe's to court I'll feign insanity, refuse to take an oath & only answer the Judge's questions in Pidgin Finnish, which I am learning at the moment, while gaming with my Finnish Battlefield2 Squadmates Antilles & McSniper. About a word a week. I better mention my other squadmate Partisanjager too because he is a 2m tall Australian with a big new (virtual) sniper rifle.
Herein ends my disclaimer...
So. Let my War On Terror, sorry Shiteology, begin...
Ps. Sorry, I am an obsessive, compulsive, comma user...
Pps. Are you a member of Amnesty International yet? If not, well what exactly is your excuse then?
The "internet" cannot be held responsible for it's content. That's down to us. You DO realise that RIGHT NOW we are living through The Golden Age of the World Wide Web? Already the freedom to do what I am doing right now, is denied to well over over a billion people in China. No www.internet.com there. No Siree. Think about that. If the Chinese Government can block over a billion (1,300,000,000, that many) then anybody anywhere can be potentially erased from the www. The People's Republic Of China, hmm. People's Republic? Yea, right. Yet we turn a blind eye to this. Virtually everything we buy now seems to have "Made In China" stamped on it. Not just the cheapo plastic toys anymore. Expensive stuff too. Most of us buy it anyway (I know I do, somewhat guiltily). We seem to have let time bury our conscience too as far as Tianamen Square in June 1989 goe's too. How long before the Western Powers start to Firewall us/Deny us Access/Spam us - to oblivion? Already, 1.3 Billion people in China cannot read this. Of course all right minded, free* & decent people would like to put an end to this Shiteology. Maybe the army of bloggers (30 million is it in Oct 2005?) now tapping away as I tap will be on the next front line after China has been lost to the rest of us, & us from them. Will George Dubya's so called War On Terror help? I don't think so...
So here's to that Golden Age, our last wonderful Indian Summer of Blogging Bliss on the World Wide Web. Long may it last...
Worse luck, I've just started my blog this month (October 2005 at the time of typing), so I better make the most of it & enjoy it & make some new friends as we all should while we're still able to...
That is my Mission...
Now please do me the honour of reading my statements...
Steiner62
Ocober 2005
*The ordinary decent people of Iraq, Iran, Syria, China, North Korea, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan & Saudi Arabia et al still await positive developments in this respect...
A Disclaimer
To anybody in a position of power or influence whom I libel in this web log I can only say this much. It was'nt me. They made me do it. Please don't take my headset, not the headset.
Any similarities between people alive or dead that I mention in this blog with any real or fictional characters may or may not be entirely intentional or semi-intentional. If it goe's to court I'll feign insanity, refuse to take an oath & only answer the Judge's questions in Pidgin Finnish, which I am learning at the moment, while gaming with my Finnish Battlefield2 Squadmates Antilles & McSniper. About a word a week. I better mention my other squadmate Partisanjager too because he is a 2m tall Australian with a big new (virtual) sniper rifle.
Herein ends my disclaimer...
So. Let my War On Terror, sorry Shiteology, begin...
Ps. Sorry, I am an obsessive, compulsive, comma user...
Pps. Are you a member of Amnesty International yet? If not, well what exactly is your excuse then?
Saturday, October 08, 2005
This blog is dedicated to the fond memory of my dear friend John O'Donohoe (1963-2000). John used this phrase* when indignant, which was often!
Black John, Me, Myself, I & The Wincent (see photo below)
Wolverton Lodge, Barnhill Road, Dalkey, Dublin County, Banana Republic Of Ireland, Saturday, April 15th 1990. John had a very acute Bull-ScheiBe Detector. Whenever he (often) railed against whatever he percieved to be wrong, false, or plain stupid, he invariably described it as Shiteology*.
Dear Reader Please Note - In daily usage among Hiberno-English speakers like me, the word "shite" (pronounced so as to rhyme with "light") is generally considered to be a less offensive, nay, more acceptable version of the coarser, shorter, Anglo Saxon version. Something similar is true of another commonly used word in Irish daily life, the word "feck" as in "feck off out of it will you, you stupid fecker!". Substitute the "e" with a "u" & that last expression takes on a much more aggresive & obscene meaning. Most if not nearly all Irish people find the use of the word feck mildly offensive at the very worst & actually funny in the majority of social encounters. The same is true of the word "shite" (though it is definitely a more risque word to use socially than feck). So when someone uses the word "shiteology" it really refers to something that obviously irritates, with the emphasis being on that irritation rather than being used merely to shock people as a "rude word"! I'm pretty sure my friend John (the main inspiration for my blog - the smartest, wisest, truest, most loyal, & cantankerous person I have ever known) would have concurred, ("oh no I bloody well would'nt have Cannon you're a Shiteologist of the first order" would possibly be an alternative O'Donohoe response to all this waffle). I thought I'd better tease that out a bit for you in any case as I don't want to unintentionally scare off any of the more delicate souls amongst you out there on the web. Ok, that's enough shite from me for now...so double click that pic now to see how incredibly handsome we were, when we was younger...
Wolverton Lodge, Barnhill Road, Dalkey, Dublin County, Banana Republic Of Ireland, Saturday, April 15th 1990. John had a very acute Bull-ScheiBe Detector. Whenever he (often) railed against whatever he percieved to be wrong, false, or plain stupid, he invariably described it as Shiteology*.
Dear Reader Please Note - In daily usage among Hiberno-English speakers like me, the word "shite" (pronounced so as to rhyme with "light") is generally considered to be a less offensive, nay, more acceptable version of the coarser, shorter, Anglo Saxon version. Something similar is true of another commonly used word in Irish daily life, the word "feck" as in "feck off out of it will you, you stupid fecker!". Substitute the "e" with a "u" & that last expression takes on a much more aggresive & obscene meaning. Most if not nearly all Irish people find the use of the word feck mildly offensive at the very worst & actually funny in the majority of social encounters. The same is true of the word "shite" (though it is definitely a more risque word to use socially than feck). So when someone uses the word "shiteology" it really refers to something that obviously irritates, with the emphasis being on that irritation rather than being used merely to shock people as a "rude word"! I'm pretty sure my friend John (the main inspiration for my blog - the smartest, wisest, truest, most loyal, & cantankerous person I have ever known) would have concurred, ("oh no I bloody well would'nt have Cannon you're a Shiteologist of the first order" would possibly be an alternative O'Donohoe response to all this waffle). I thought I'd better tease that out a bit for you in any case as I don't want to unintentionally scare off any of the more delicate souls amongst you out there on the web. Ok, that's enough shite from me for now...so double click that pic now to see how incredibly handsome we were, when we was younger...
Friday, October 07, 2005
My definition of Shiteology (with apologies to B.Behan RIP) : Anything someone says or does that gives you a gut feeling that it's
- false
- wrong
- stupid
- fascistic
- ignorant
- atavistic
- intolerant
- prejudiced
- mean spirited
- gratuitously cruel
- religiously fundamental
- unscientific (eg.INTELLIGENT DESIGN, so incredibly dumb it inspired this blog's name!
- Anything coming out of George Dubya's top oriface (on Fox News right now probably) also qualifies for this list by default. Well it goe's without saying that I am OBVIOUSLY a pinko, faggot, commie subversive to display such a negative attitude towards that man in the Whitehouse. The POTUS who loves playing golf & chopping down trees on his Ranch. The Texan Millionaire who did FECK ALL with his Silver Spooned life until he turned 40! Yet he still managed to become a (failed) oil Tycoon & State Guvnor of Texas, with no nepotism or family string pulling or financial help at all. A real self made Man. Yessir! The man who said (& I quote) "when I was young & irresponsible, I was young & irresponsible". So now he's Older & more irresponsible than he could POSSIBLY have been when he was getting high & drink driving all those years ago. The world was a much safer place all round when he was wasted behind the wheel of his Chevvy. He could only put a few pedestrians at risk then. Now it run's into the millions. When he's not on vacation of course George is busy putting an end to "Terror". We MUST STOP THE TERROR. I am appealing to all Nations to STOP THE TERROR! Now watch this Intelligently Designed blog...
In 2003 George told Palestinian Officials that GOD TOLD HIM TO LIBERATE IRAQ. This recently earned him a 1st Class Masters Degree in Shiteology (MSh)
George Dubya(MSh) acknowledges the warm applause from Satanist folks in the auditorium just after he was conferred with his Masters Degree in Shiteology recently at the University Of Intelligent Design, Palookaville, TexasThe REALLY DISTURBING thing about this photo is it actually depicts G.Dubya being conferred with a real honorary Science Degree! The ID Promotor in Chief - grinning like a Fox who's just squeezed into the Chicken Coop. Maybe that's why he looks so fecking smug in this photo...
"To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole arab world against us & make a broken tyrant into a latter-day hero...assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator & condemning them to fight in what would be an un-winnable urban guerilla war. It could only plunge that part of the world into even greater instability"
George Bush Senior
(The saying that the apple never falls far from the tree may not be true in this particular case)
George Dubya(MSh) - The least intelligently designed president of all time ever
Well, I thought that my blog title might flush out some American Shiteology Majors & general Intelligent Design Apologists/Fantasists for starters. Nope! I suppose THAT would be too much to hope for...if you are an Amerikan reading this you are in all likelyhood a DEMOCRAT (East or West coast?). Of course being a European Generic Democrat Liberal type myself, I have ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM WItH AMERICAN REPUBLICANS, as long as they stay out in the garden. I must admit that IRISH REPUBLICANS make me feel quite ill too though. Anyways, I will defend anybodies ABSOLUTE RIGHT to say & believe whatever they want, as long as they do not try & impose their views on those who don't agree with them by intimidation or force. Was'nt it Voltaire who said (I'm paraphrasing him here in English) " I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your RIGHT to say it with my life" (but preferably with someone else's life, epecially if you're a member of Al-Qaeda or a NeoCon). Well I hope that's clear now, y'all. Incidentally, there's a Town called Youghal (pronounced "y'all") here in Ire-r-land, in East Cork County. So if you're ever in Youghal George, be careful not to confuse the locals - "Y'all from Youghal?". If you do visit, & EVERYBODY IS WELCOME to come & check Ireland out, (unless you're a member of Al-Qaeda or a NeoCon) Make sure you try to LEAVE DUBLIN at some stage during your vacation. Try West Cork County. Especially Baltimore (in West Cork, the original one, not the Yankee one). Tis a little piece of Paradise boy...and you know what? My own County, Wicklow is really nice too (& a lot nearer to Dublin Airport now our Dublin Orbital Motorway/Freeway/Highway/Autobahn/Autostrada/Autoroute, the M50, is FINALLY finished. It took more than TWENTY YEARS to complete about 40km). Dunno Why they called it the M50. We've no M49 right through to 12. We DO have an M11 however, which is about 5 mins drive from my keyboard here, sorry, I digress. If you've bothered to read this far, I may have got away with it. Now please, scroll on...
Ps. What I wanna know is this - how can CREATIONISTS delude themselves that
so called Intelligent Design somehow makes The Universe more wondrous. All THE EVIDENCE accumulated by humanity to date demonstrates that there is no need for an "Intelligent Designer". Why oh why can't each & every person on this lump of rock just open thier eyes/ears/hearts & minds & look & see & learn from ALL THE EVIDENCE SCIENCE HAS GIFTED US that the Universe we know & love actually, on the balance of all evidences & probabilities, happenstanced spontaneously. Maybe that's just too scary an insight to comprehend for a lot of good Christian (& Muslim & Jewish) folks. OK, obviuosly it is, but you know what I mean. Heck, why think for yourself dude? It's all there in the Good Book's. Case closed. Now let's go kill each other over the details. And I know I should'nt start a sentence with "And" but I'm mad as hell, I mean why must they HIJACK those two words, quite good ones. Intelligent. Design. I can't even utter them in this blog anymore, so in future I'll call it "ID". Ok, so I got a bug up my ass called INTELLIGENT DESIGN, shite, typed it again. Sure, I'd love the cosy emotional security blanket & slippers of a Creator God up there in the clouds, creating away, sorting us mere mortals out into convenient piles, one marked "Damnation" (the bigger one), the other marked "Salvation". I'm sorry guys BUT I JUST CAN'T BUY THAT! Those CREATIONIST ZEALOTS have hi-jacked two perfectly innocent & useful words for their own nefarious needs. Intelligent Design = Creationism that's well understood I know. Without a sinlge ATOM of physical evidence (one of my favorite words, definitely) they use those two words to describe their "Theory". Well, is it not an oximoranically & hysterically inappropriate use of the english language? Now I know (it's been commented on here already from another blogger) that I am basically railing & ranting against "ID" in this blog. That I am not putting forward any cohesive & cogent arguments to challenge it logically. Some shite about if I found a watch in a field one day , how would I know if somebody made it, or created it. Jesus. (I'm a lapsed Catholic, so please indulge me the luxury of that expression of exasperation!). Anyway, it would probably have "Made in Japan" (or more bleedin' likely now, "Made In China" engraved on the back of it). All I can say is that minds a helluva lot more focussed than mine, (eg. Professor Richard Dawkins) has debunked "ID" repeatedly & forensically in his published works on numerous occasions. His arguments are extremely well laid out, logical, eloquent & persuasive. His EVIDENCE to counter the non evidence of "ID" is overwhelming. If you are unsure then go to any library, heck it's the Information Age...Google him, it'll all be there for you. Oh bugger, if you are an antideluvian, claminded ID proponent (I just invented that expression, clam-minded = claminded = closed mind!), well you won't be READING this liberal diatribe anyway. Maybe though, you are a teenager who's parents are brainwashing you with all that Christian Fundamentalist Shiteology, & you secretly blogsurf when they are busy away at Walmart buying more ammo for Armegeddon. Do youself a favour if that is YOU! GOOGLE Richard Dawkins NOW!
Phew. Oh. I feel much better now, time for a game of Battlefield 2 now as a reward Des, yes. Cyber Insurgents shoot back but it does'nt hurt (or leave a mess). And the Online Game Maps are so intelligently designed...
Ps. What I wanna know is this - how can CREATIONISTS delude themselves that
so called Intelligent Design somehow makes The Universe more wondrous. All THE EVIDENCE accumulated by humanity to date demonstrates that there is no need for an "Intelligent Designer". Why oh why can't each & every person on this lump of rock just open thier eyes/ears/hearts & minds & look & see & learn from ALL THE EVIDENCE SCIENCE HAS GIFTED US that the Universe we know & love actually, on the balance of all evidences & probabilities, happenstanced spontaneously. Maybe that's just too scary an insight to comprehend for a lot of good Christian (& Muslim & Jewish) folks. OK, obviuosly it is, but you know what I mean. Heck, why think for yourself dude? It's all there in the Good Book's. Case closed. Now let's go kill each other over the details. And I know I should'nt start a sentence with "And" but I'm mad as hell, I mean why must they HIJACK those two words, quite good ones. Intelligent. Design. I can't even utter them in this blog anymore, so in future I'll call it "ID". Ok, so I got a bug up my ass called INTELLIGENT DESIGN, shite, typed it again. Sure, I'd love the cosy emotional security blanket & slippers of a Creator God up there in the clouds, creating away, sorting us mere mortals out into convenient piles, one marked "Damnation" (the bigger one), the other marked "Salvation". I'm sorry guys BUT I JUST CAN'T BUY THAT! Those CREATIONIST ZEALOTS have hi-jacked two perfectly innocent & useful words for their own nefarious needs. Intelligent Design = Creationism that's well understood I know. Without a sinlge ATOM of physical evidence (one of my favorite words, definitely) they use those two words to describe their "Theory". Well, is it not an oximoranically & hysterically inappropriate use of the english language? Now I know (it's been commented on here already from another blogger) that I am basically railing & ranting against "ID" in this blog. That I am not putting forward any cohesive & cogent arguments to challenge it logically. Some shite about if I found a watch in a field one day , how would I know if somebody made it, or created it. Jesus. (I'm a lapsed Catholic, so please indulge me the luxury of that expression of exasperation!). Anyway, it would probably have "Made in Japan" (or more bleedin' likely now, "Made In China" engraved on the back of it). All I can say is that minds a helluva lot more focussed than mine, (eg. Professor Richard Dawkins) has debunked "ID" repeatedly & forensically in his published works on numerous occasions. His arguments are extremely well laid out, logical, eloquent & persuasive. His EVIDENCE to counter the non evidence of "ID" is overwhelming. If you are unsure then go to any library, heck it's the Information Age...Google him, it'll all be there for you. Oh bugger, if you are an antideluvian, claminded ID proponent (I just invented that expression, clam-minded = claminded = closed mind!), well you won't be READING this liberal diatribe anyway. Maybe though, you are a teenager who's parents are brainwashing you with all that Christian Fundamentalist Shiteology, & you secretly blogsurf when they are busy away at Walmart buying more ammo for Armegeddon. Do youself a favour if that is YOU! GOOGLE Richard Dawkins NOW!
Phew. Oh. I feel much better now, time for a game of Battlefield 2 now as a reward Des, yes. Cyber Insurgents shoot back but it does'nt hurt (or leave a mess). And the Online Game Maps are so intelligently designed...
10 Reasons you should be laughing more often
My Favorite piece of Pagan Architecture is the Pantheon in Roma...
Intelligent designs last quite a long time...this is a fine example.
So, what did the Romans ever do for us?
What? You mean apart from codified law & order, the adoption of Christianity, plumbing & sanitation,concreate, straight roads, the modern-day calender, high-rise aparttments, mass production, fire engines, aqueducts...
How about Rome's innovative republican government, which was copied by many of the world's current political systems? Or languages:among others, Spanish, French, Italian and, indirectly, English evolved from Latin. It was'nt all sex & violence, but then that gave us I Claudius, Spartacus, Gladiator & Rome Total War (on my Hard Drive). Last but by no means least - The Life Of Brian
If I could pick just ONE person to be beside me (or even better behind me) when the Insurgents hit the fan...
Audie Leon Murphy was & probably still is, the bravest soldier that ever actually lived to tell the tale. He was the most highly decorated US soldier of the Second World War. He did'nt just court death. He actively seemed to seek it out. He consistently failed to get himself killed, through a combination of guile, courage & dumb luck.That's the sort of Warrior I admire. He is reckoned (conservatively) to have ended the war permanently for approximately 250-300 German Soldaten. He was 21 when in one famous encounter he killed more than 50 German soldiers (from a group of 250, supported by SIX PANZERS!) when stranded alone on the back of a burning Tank Destroyer with only the TD's machine gun functioning. The German force eventual wavered & retreated. For this act of courage verging on the suicidal he recieved the Congressional Medal Of Honor (see citation above). If only half of his memoir above is true, it's still an unbelievable story. Harry Trumann called him the "Babyfaced Killer" with good reason. He went on (with the help of one James Cagney) to a lucrative, if artistically frustrating career as a "B" Movie Star, mainly in "Cowboys". His "nervous stomach" (undiagnosed PTSS) was never treated. He slept with a gun under his pillow every night until the day he died, in a planecrash, in 1971...
Ok so I'm ANOTHER Male Sci-Fi Freak
Finally we meet Robbie a half a Century after his finest hour!
Best Science Fiction Movie of all time...apart from Bladerunner, Dark Star , Aliens 1 & 2, The Terminator 1 & 2, Highlander...eh The Thing is great too! Minority Report is really underated I think. Same guy who wrote the story Bladerunner's based on wrote it, Philip K. Dick. I gotta big softspot for Silent Running too...well I was about 11 yrs old the firstime I saw it...
This is a map of Greater Dublin...
I live in Wicklow County, just South of Dublin County, y'all. I think anyone who grew up in Dublin or North Wicklow for that matter, COMPLETELY takes for granted what a Beautiful Place it is to live. How many European or World Capital Cities can claim to have a number of huge sandy strands just a few minutes drive from it's city centre? (Dollymount & Sandymount Strands). Or a big Tombolo just across the Bay (Howth Head). Or be ringed by Picturesque Mountains (OK so technically they are Hills, but they look like Mountains!). All this, & the best Pubs in the Observable Universe... In my opinion any Dubliners or North Wicklowers who emmigrated to another Country (I never got further than London for five years), & then returned home, can only then fully appreciate what a lovely place it is to live in (OK so the traffic jams can be bad at times & our infrastructure is still at least 10 years, no 15 years behind most of Europe, but we are catching up fast). Hee hee. You can't put a value on a Beautiful Bay & Mountains in the distance though, can you? We've always had that around here. Except when it was under a mile high Ice Sheet Glacier thing. Look, allow me the gloat, we've being waiting for over 800 years to. Bloody English. Only joking, sure, I like them so much I married one.
Meet my country, The Republic of Eye- r -land aka The Celtic Tiger, "Southern Ireland" (UK Only), Eireann, The Ould Sod, Eire
I's a really boring shape. It's an Island. It rains most days. It's got some really beautiful bits that will feed your soul (in a sad sort of way). It was buried, no crushed, under a 1,000m high glacier (on at least four seperate occasions in the last one million years alone), but it alway's bounces back. Literally. It was originally occupied by Hunter-Gatherers during the Ice Ages. Then the Celts (pronounced "Kelts"). Then The Vikings raped & pillaged & helped themselves to a lot of the bits at rivermouths eg. Dublin/Waterford/Wexford (as in "fjord", but pronounced like the car). The Vikings were defeated by an Irish force led by King Brian Boru at Clontarf, near Dublin, in 1014. Then the Normans (aka the "English") moved in (by invitation from an Irish Warlord, Dermot MacMorrough) in 1169. After 800 odd years of numerous battles with the dreaded English (most of which we lost, with a few notable exceptions), Ireland was finally declared a "Free State" in 1922 after The War of Independence (1919-22), yes we had one too, though it was like a last minute afterthought when one considers it was over 800 years late. Finally declared a Republic in 1937. The Catholic Church used be the Organ Grinder to the Irish Government's Monkey from the foundation of the Free State until a few years ago. Not anymore, thanks be to Jesus. Ireland is also world renowned for it's many fine writers & poets. It manufactures & exports more pharmaceuticals to the Rest of The World than ANY other country. It had NO Freeways at all in 1980 the year I "graduated from High School" (as a guy from Georgia might say!). Now in 2005 it has about 500km of them. It has the healthiest Economy & GDP in the European Union (25 States). Ok, so Luxemburg has a slightly higher GDP, but there's like, about 79 of them in total. All this in a country the same size as a small US State (Ireland has almost exactly the same population, four million, & is the same size, as South Carolina). However our Soccerball team is SHITE at the moment, tragically. We NEVER qualify for the Soccer Ball World Series (World Cup) when it's being held nice & conveniently for the Legendarily Loyal Irish Soccer Fans somewhere in Europe (Germany next, in 2006). We LOVE talking a lot. We LOVE to binge drink alcohol, though we know we should'nt. We have banned smoking in ALL public places where people congregate indoors, which is good if, like me, you are old & sick of years of passive smoking. Nevertheless, even with no smoking to add athmosphere, our Pubs remain the Finest on Planet Earth. We also love our Mobile Phones (Cellulars) too much, which can inhibit us talking to the person actually in our direct company, as we are more & more distracted by them ringing, bleeping, purring, whirring & lighting up endlessly as we TRY to have a meaningful conversation with that person in our direct company. Though often THEY don't notice WE are ignoring THEM, because THEY are also fiddling with THIER Mobile too. We are a Nation of Fiddlers...which reminds me, our Traditional Music is Great too (as long as it steers away from the "Those Bloody Brits have persecuted us for the last 800 years" variety). That's SHITE. I prefer someone like (Dingle, County Kerry-based) Eoin Duignan (www.duigo.com). He composes & plays his own & traditional compositions on Uileann Pipes & Low Whistles...musical Balm for the Soul.Ps. "Celtic" is pronounced "Kelt-tick" in Eye-r-land.
"Eireann" as in "Air-in". "Eire" as in "Air-ra"