And Slaters Go Plop

I regularly listen to the weekly BBC In Our Time podcast with Melvyn Bragg. It’s a podcast that covers a huge range of topics from a historical perspective. The usual format is Melvyn accompanied by two or three experts who then spend about 40 minutes dissecting whatever the topic du jour is.In the past he’s covered things like the Fibonacci sequence, oxygen, guilt, Socraties, hell, Zoroastrianism, relativism, tea… the list just goes on and on. If you are into diversity then I thoroughly recommend you check it out.

The point of this post is that next week he’s going to be addressing the topic of the Nicene Creed which, to be honest, has me positively squirming with excitement. The reason for my excitement is that it’s very difficult to find a neutral and informed conversation on this topic and I’m looking forward to hearing what his panel of experts have to say about it.

Going by the usual gold standard he sets with regard to the quality of his experts this will be a must for anyone who’s ever heard of the Nicene Creed. (If you haven’t heard of it before it’s to do with how the Bible was originally compiled about 1600 years ago and the politics that surrounded the task).

[edit] As pointed out by Dale in the comments, the creed is quite different from the council where they compiled the list of books for the Christian Bible.

Also, I was away on holiday when this aired and I’m unable to download the archived version so if anyone has an mp3 copy of this show please let me know!

Why do we buy them? We hand over $50 that could otherwise be used anywhere you like in exchange for a voucher worth $50 that can only be used at certain shops.

On a purely logical level $50 in cash is a far greater gift to give simply because it can be redeemed anywhere you like. The problem is that giving cash as a present is about as lazy as can be. When you buy someone a voucher you are saying that at least you made an effort.

You would think that shops would give you slightly more incentive to buy vouchers because at least then they’ve got a guaranteed customer (and maybe even a few unredeemed vouchers too, if they are lucky). Why don’t they sell $50 vouchers for $45? Surely they could find some way around people buying vouchers and immediately using them? How about a month’s delay before being able to redeem them to keep this in check?

Anyway. Happy Christmas and bah humbug.

Carl Sagan died eleven years ago today. His enthusiasm for the universe and everything in it was contagious and he is responsible for the sense of awe I and many, many others feel when we look up at the stars at night.

Our brains are not capable of comprehending the true vastness of space but Carl managed to help us expand our comprehension to the point of vertigo and, with it, and closer understanding of our true standing within the universe.

My thoughts are with his family and I, like many others, wish he was still here.

What are they?
They are a small political party (<1000 votes in the last election) in New Zealand based on Libertarian policies.

What’s their objective?

To establish a consititutional republic of New Freeland, not by deceit but by openly and vigorously promoting a libertarian form of government.

In a nutshell:

• Taxes = NO!
• Government = As little as possible
• Individual rights = YES!
• Homosexuality (or any other -sexuality) = Who cares, just don’t hurt anyone
• Drugs = Ditto the above
• Education = Privatised or community-run
• Business = Divorced from government
• Law = No victim, no crime
• Social welfare = Reliant on the charity of the well-off individuals and groups
• Immigration = Open the gates
• Self Defence = Everyone grab a gun Defend yourself with reasonable force
• National Defence = No foreign wars but build a good defence
• Smacking = Horay!

Find out more:

• Their website
• A snazzy animation about Libertarianism
• Ayn Rand and Objectivism

I am an absolute novice when it comes to politics so if you feel I’ve misrepresented the policies please let me know and I’ll make corrections.

Just over a month ago I wrote about the shootings in Finland and, tongue-in-cheek, expressed what many in the fundamentalist blogosphere were saying.

Sadly, I spoke too soon. According to the Independent, in New South Wales an English creationist has stabbed a Scottish man to death during a heated debate about evolution. They were on a fruit-picking working holiday and had been drinking in a pub where the row broke out. The stabbing took place later that evening back at the camp ground where they were staying.

The creationist, Alexander York, was given a maximum of five years on a charge of manslaughter, not murder. The judge ruled that, while York knew he had a knife in his hand he had not thought of the consequences of his actions when he lashed out.

If not for the truly tragic nature of this news item it would almost make for a classic Gary Larson cartoon. I can just picture two scientists in a heated (excuse the pun) row about the Second Law of Thermodynamics. I guess this is an example of how beliefs and reality clash on a day to day basis.

Then again, the guy may have just been a nut-job who would have flipped over another issue given the same circumstances and enough alcohol.

Yes!

Link

Recent research of chimps and humans has shown that chimps have better short term memory. Even when using numerals. Watch the video and also check out the BBC article (and further videos) for more information.

This research suggests that we may have had better short term memory in our evolutionary past but that with further brain development our short term memory capabilities have had to take a back seat.

What kind of snail do these empty shells belong to? The living snail is a young common garden variety but these empty shells are a lot flatter and have a large indent on the inner side of the spiral. They were found on Auckland’s North Shore in a patch of bare(ish) dirt.