Sunday, January 14, 2007

"It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power." - David Brin

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Facebook | Christians for a Complete Biblical Canon - "Thie group is for good Christians who will not accept an incomplete biblical canon that only has 66 books."
Some people don't understand how it was compiled...

Various sexual facts - "On his third voyage, in 1777, Captain Cook visited the Pacific island kingdom of Tonga, where he met King Fatafehi Paulah (reigned c. 1770-84), 36th of the Tu'i Tonga dynasty. A corpulent but husky octogenarian, the king claimed that it was his royal duty to deflower every native maiden. He said that he had never been with the same woman twice and was presently performing his appointed task 8-10 times a day, every day. Assuming he never wearied of his geis, and subtracting an arbitrary 65 days a year for illness and whatnot, he would have despoiled around 37,800 damsels during his reign."

Artist cooks meal in own body fat - ""BON APPETIT," said Chilean artist Marco Evaristti as he presented his friends with his newest creation: meatballs cooked with fat from his own body, extracted by liposuction."

Bad Science or Bad Argument: The Role of Science Arguments in the Animal Experimentation Debate - "Advocating both sides of the coin requires some fancy footwork. For example, one of PETA’s best known positions, that "When it comes to feeling pain, hunger and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They are all mammals" (usually shortened by opponents to simply "A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy") (Bennett B2). While this may be true, PETA would also like to remind us that "enormous physiological variations exist among rats, rabbits, dogs, pigs, and human beings" (PETA, Animal, emphasis added). If there really are enormous physiological variations, how can one assume that rats’ experiences of pain, hunger, and thirst in any way resemble pigs’, dogs’ or boys’?... Rather than arguing that animals should not be used as means to ends, the activist attempts to show that using animals as means to ends is silly because the end is useless, inapplicable data. No longer are animals given an a priori right not to be enslaved as experimental subjects, but rather their lives are placed on the old welfarist scale that inevitably tips in favor of the slightest human interest. These arguments fall wholly within the realm of traditional, speciesist logic and thereby endorse that viewpoint."
They're even more radical than PETA; no matter how extremist you are, you can always find someone more extreme than you. Reading this is an instructive lesson on why it is more fruitful to publicly support gay marriage because homosexuality is natural than because no one has any business dictating what consenting, informed adults do to/with each other. Ditto for similar liberal causes.

Debunking Christianity - "This Blog has been created for the express purpose of debunking Evangelical Christianity. We are all ex-Christians. Most of us are ex-ministers, and even ex-apologists for the Christian faith. We are now freethinkers, skeptics, agnostics, and atheists. With the diversity of our combined strengths, we seek to debunk Christianity."

Aspire :: View topic - do guys prefer girls to have long or short hair?? - "this method got instant whitening effect. I dun think u guys will like it. I believe all girls, includng me will like it. The method is using QUAKER OATS. First, scoop out about 2-3 scoops of oats using a spoon( any size but not the stirrer) Second, dilute it with abit of water (tap water will do), not too much but until it's like very sticky glue Next, use that spoon to spread it on your face ( the oats shdn't slip of ur face if it's sticky ) After that, close ur eyes for abt 15 mins? abt there - the oats shd hv dry up and "attached" to ur face As soon as you feel that the oats have harden, u can stand up and peel it off or just wash it off. Trust me, u can see the instant whitening."
Wth.

Kindergarten of Christ - "The American evangelical organisation Kids in Ministry trains children as young as five in the gifts of healing, prophecy and speaking in tongues... 'I want to see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as young people are to the cause of Islam,' she says. 'I want to see them radically laying down their lives for the gospel.'... while liberal America perceives the Christian right and its burgeoning political influence as a threat to individual freedoms, reason and common sense, what I sensed among the gathering at the Christ Triumphant was rather a defensiveness – almost a sense of beleaguerment. Like Christians in Ancient Rome, they saw themselves as the victims if not exactly of persecution then certainly of a 'conspiracy' by the media, Hollywood and the forces of secular liberalism to attack and undermine their faith... A boy of about nine stepped off the stage and walked directly to a girl in the audience and pointed at her: 'God has told me that if you keep on praying every day, you will blow people's brains out.' There was a moment's hesitation – could he mean? No, surely not – and then a thunderous round of applause... The emotional hysteria generated in Charismatic gatherings was also, Hand told me, 'alien to the Christian faith'; and, he thought, 'particularly questionable and at times dangerous' where children were involved. 'These kinds of experiences have immense potential to deceive both the children themselves and the adults who encourage them. For most of these children, they'll look back in 10 years' time and wonder what on earth it was all about.'"