K.I.S.S ...(keep it short & simple...)

from; xkcd

don't be so quick to judge....

why atheism? why not Islam? or 'worse', couldn't you just have become a Jehovah's witness?

It amuses me the way most people are typically more comfortable hating what they do not understand as opposed to trying to learn more about the issue in-order to understand. (i suppose such is the appeal of ignorance).

I did not choose to be different, i simply have always been different (perhaps it's a genetic disposition of some sort).

Even as a theist i always had questions that no pastor, bishop or apologetic could reason out. i mean with all the evidence how can one be a scientist disregarding evolution all the while proceeding to make postulations and draw conclusions using axioms upon which evolution is based? (how can you not practice what you 'teach'?)

Self-contradiction hurts. (if you know me you probably have noticed the 'just believe' line has never been enough, i simply have always needed more than that). I simply found to have less confusion i had to excise the source of my confusion and contradiction. (religion... all of them).

I have found i am now much better suited to function with this new found clarity. ( a naturalistic world view consistent with logic, reason, and rationale based on critical thinking).

what is it like being an atheist?

Well it sucks! (sometimes...) i spend half if not sometimes the whole day battling ignorance, spreading truth, logic, reason, and common sense. i labor to share the benefits of critical thinking and scientific reasoning to a hateful judgmental crowd.

Once in a while, it's nice when i meet an open-minded theist who in-spite of their worldview still manages to formulate wonderful ideas. (once in a blue moon!) more commonly than not am treated to TROLLS, dimwitted numnuts and the odd emotional nut-jobs. it's amazing how many people can be interested in 'saving' you.

With time i have come to realise most people honestly believe beyond a doubt what they are doing is right and correct (true?), perhaps it could also just be them trying to pass on an innate fear for which they have no rational explanation for. (thanks mom for caring...).

Goes without saying, when am not so busy being an atheist, am busy working, studying, living, loving, learning... sharing and caring. (my world-view is just a small part what defines me as a person).

noah's ark discovered....

and my response.... AGAIN? (wasn't it discovered already and then refuted... oh well, here we go again).

here is a narrative from PZ Meyers a science blogger i luv to follow....

If Fox News and Wing Nut Daily say it's true, it must be so

Posted on: April 27, 2010 3:52 PM, by PZ Myers

Ho hum. I'm getting lots of mail about this ridiculous story on WND and Fox claiming that Noah's Ark has been discovered atop Mt Ararat. No, it hasn't. This is yet another mob of incompetent evangelicals hiking all over a big hill in Turkey and credulously interpreting every rock formation and every chunk of wood as proof that they've found a big boat. It's the same BS Ron Wyatt was peddling for years. It's always the same stuff: distant photos of a rock formation that is vaguely boat-shaped, but nothing close-up to suggest that it is anything but a rock formation. Or sometimes it's a photo of a glacial ridge, with the claim that the Ark is buried under that.

Then there are the occasional close-ups of something — this latest account has lots of those — that look more like recent construction: a cabin, a mine shaft, the reinforced walls of a well. Again, nothing competently photographed to show context or extent or overall structure, nothing that even looks like a boat. In particular, though, it looks nothing like a 5,000 year old boat left exposed on a mountaintop or churned up by a glacier.

They do have one other novel claim this time around.

The group claims that carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old, meaning they date to around the same time the ark was said to be afloat. Mt. Ararat has long been suspected as the final resting place of the craft by evangelicals and literalists hoping to validate biblical stories.

Oh, yeah. Now the creationists are willing to say carbon-dating is valid.

i can speak science me!

am so old.... remember the 90's?

ever find urself... technologically challenged?

What if URA was this zealous...?!??

kinda reminds me of a supervisor of mine... he he

time to go on a well deserved holiday.....!

oppression...?!??? ...give me a break!

yo... henry, this is my reaction to your surprise that am atheist... (ps, i no longer get insulted when people try to 'save' me... it's actually quite amusing).

interesting question...

you know what this means.... ALIENS ALIENS... yay!

First-Ever Animals Found Living Without Oxygen in Marine Dead Zone

by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York

Photos via the BBC

Life Will Find a Way . . .
You're likely familiar with the ever-growing marine dead zones, areas in the ocean where no life was believed possible due to depleting oxygen levels. But in a truly startling discovery, scientists have stumbled upon the first animal that can survive without oxygen--a feat that until now was only possible in bacteria. This has a number of implications: both regarding the possibility that life may yet adapt to more severe conditions on earth, and on whether life is possible on other oxygen-free planets--and may be more abundant than we thought.

It looks like a tiny jellyfish in a protective shell. It measures around a single millimeter. And it can survive and reproduce without any oxygen at all. The new species of Loriciferan, named already named Spinoloricus Cinzia after the wife of the scientist who discovered it, and it could be the biggest biological discovery in recent times.

The BBC reports that scientists from the Marche Polytechnic University in Italy found the creature in the Mediterranean Sea's L'Atalante basin--which is "about 3.5km (2.2m) deep and is almost entirely depleted of oxygen, or anoxic." They collected some specimens, which they incubated in an oxygen-free environment--and the eggs hatched successfully in the complete absence of oxygen.

The Oxygen-Free Animal
From the BBC:

"It is a real mystery how these creatures are able to live without oxygen because until now we thought only bacteria could do this," said Professor Danovaro, who heads Italy's Association of Limnology (the study of inland waters). "We did not think we could find any animal living there. We are talking about extreme conditions - full of salt, with no oxygen." The discovery of the new Loriciferans represents, he said, a "tremendous adaptation for animals which evolved in oxygenated conditions".

This discovery is especially important when paired with the facts that these marine dead zones are doubling in size around the world every 10 years. This is happening largely because of human activity (of course); it's the result of nitrogen-rich sewage spewing into the coastlines across the globe.

A partial map of marine dead zones--where oxygen-free creatures may yet flourish. Via NASA

Marine Dead Zones
The New York Times has a good explanation of what happens:

Nitrogen from agricultural runoff and sewage stimulates the growth of photosynthetic plankton on the surface of coastal waters. As the organisms decay and sink to the bottom, they are decomposed by microbes that consume large amounts of dissolved oxygen. Most animals that live at the bottom of the coastal ocean cannot survive as oxygen levels drop.

And this is happening all around the world (global warming has been found to play a major role, too). With oxygen-deprived areas expanding, it therefore becomes imperative for sea life to adapt to survive without it--which may be what has happened with this Loriciferan. We'll have to see what details emerge about the creature's life cycle, but needless to say, this could be big. The scientists say that it could additionally help them better understand the possibilities of life existing on other planets with radically different atmospheres. In other words, this probably helps the case that it's out there

Liberators turned heartless pigs! shame on you...! big f*ckn' SHAME ON YOU!

Collateral Murder

5th April 2010 10:44 EST WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff.

Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.

The military did not reveal how the Reuters staff were killed, and stated that they did not know how the children were injured.

After demands by Reuters, the incident was investigated and the U.S. military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own "Rules of Engagement".

Consequently, WikiLeaks has released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing these rules before, during, and after the killings.

WikiLeaks has released both the original 38 minutes video and a shorter version with an initial analysis. Subtitles have been added to both versions from the radio transmissions.

WikiLeaks obtained this video as well as supporting documents from a number of military whistleblowers. WikiLeaks goes to great lengths to verify the authenticity of the information it receives. We have analyzed the information about this incident from a variety of source material. We have spoken to witnesses and journalists directly involved in the incident.

WikiLeaks wants to ensure that all the leaked information it receives gets the attention it deserves. In this particular case, some of the people killed were journalists that were simply doing their jobs: putting their lives at risk in order to report on war. Iraq is a very dangerous place for journalists: from 2003- 2009, 139 journalists were killed while doing their work.

....to be honest as i read this post, i felt challenged to question the core of humanity. is this what we are? ...all around the world, we are only consumed by greed the urge to dominate and the insatiable thirst for blood... every where you go it's the same trend! is this it? ...is this what it means to be human?

am in a very weird mood today...

too tired to rant....

well i have been in argument on the Freethought Kampala blog with this tool called 27th comerade and just felt like taking the easy way out....

(open pic in new window to see bigger size)