The Eternal Gaijin

1) It's a great movie, one of the best ever made. 2) Ridley Scott is from my wife's home town and the industrial landscapes at the beginning of the movie are based on the skyline there. Q&A: Ridley Scott Has Finally Created the Blade Runner He Always Imagined Q&A: Ridley Scott Has Finally Created the Blade Runner He Always Imagined Powered by ScribeFire .

No matter how much time I spend on the intertubes, I just can't keep up with all the crap that falls out of the orang-utan run word processors of the right wing whack-a-doodles and the cretin creationists (yes, thank you, I do think that's clever). I can barely keep up with half the blogs that help me keep up with this stuff. So thank fully the denialism blog found this piece of Hovind-esque crap in the paper. denialism blog : Creationists are idiots - Part 8,246,532 It's hard to even sort out all the idiocy, innumeracy, poor-reasoning and straw men arguments in this essay. But I think it illustrates, again, the fundamental dishonesty of intelligent design creationists. For one, none of us would make such incredibly stupid arguments that Sewell attributes to his evilutionist "friend". A computer simulation will never be sophisticated enough to model the whole planet and if it did, there is not some deterministic path that would replicate life as we know it. No...

Afarensis: Stupid Creationist Quote of the Day Thanks Afarensis Powered by ScribeFire .

Last week the wife and I ditched the dog (dog hotel, people!) and went to Shimane prefecture at the start of last week. She'd been up on business in July (and a typhoon) to Matsue and was excited by the town and area. At the time the locally known site, Iwami Ginzan Kozan, was being considered for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List. We spent the night in Matsue, touring the castle and the Lafcadio Hearn museum and former residence across the street. Below: Matsue-Jo (Castle) In the morning we trucked off to Iwami Ginzan < http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1246 > itself. Although it's about a 90min to 2hrs to drive from Matsue, we got there without any real trouble. The area around Iwami Ginzan is quite beautiful. Surrounded by forested hills, the site runs from the Iwami Ginzan village about 2 km along a small stream to the old entrance of the mine shaft. (koudou in Japanese; mabu in the local parlance) . The mineshaft has been shored up and expanded a bit from when ...

Not only is he tall and a great, diverse actor, he's in a real religion. With ET's attacking soon. Cruise to 'build alien bunker' | Metro.co.uk And that's why we say 'Tom-Cruise-Crazy' Powered by ScribeFire .

You know every once in a while you realize that the English language is lacking sufficient punctuation marks. Yeah, there's the interrobang , but when was the last time you saw one of those in print? What's truly missing is a way of marking off sarcasm. I mean, Jack Chick‽ (I'm proud of myself: I held back on the obscene infix there) Jack Chick has been doing his Chick-Tracts shtick for quite a while. Everyone knows him. He's a King James only type with a very, very literal view on everything. He also seems to like every conspiracy theory that even walks past him on the street. But his real mad-on comes when he hears about anything to do with science, secularism or the occult. Please don't ask how wide a net the word occult seems to cast. Friend DEG has been sending me links to these things (esp. Big Daddy ) for years. Seems Jack has rediscovered the trend in Cretinism Creationism that's trying to account for the dinosaurs. And the answer is Dino-burgers . S...

The latest New Rules segment posted on One Good Move . No virgin births and talking bushes, or special blessed underwear and gold plates. We're not the crazy ones. -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

It's sorta his fault. And after all we've been through together! A little while back the rev posts this over at his Woodshed and I couldn't help pondering a certain question: Where have I heard this name before? Kirk Durston . Where indeed? And that lead to searching on the Intertubes. Which brought me to the old Pharyngula site: Pharyngula::Creationist genetics It's not just the US that is infested with creationists; take a look at Canadian Christianity. Like their southern brethren, they seem to be greatly concerned about homosexuals and evolution; I'm always astounded at how much conservative Christian identity is tied to the denial of civil rights and opposition to science. There are several juicy tidbits of benighted ignorance there, but I'm going to focus on one incredible claim made in an interview with a Kirk Durston, who is apparently a director of some Campus Chrusade for Christ ministry...which, apparently, means he is now a fully qualified creati...

I know it's not my whinging that's highlighting the loss of personal freedom and the expansion of the nanny state into a police state-lite in the UK but I'm still taking credit for this : A group of eminent lawyers and scientists is calling for anyone not convicted of a crime to have their details wiped from the DNA database. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics said it is "unjustified" to keep people on the National DNA Database when they have not been convicted of any offence. Fucking right... There's even a call so that: People who volunteer their DNA for elimination purposes, such as victims or witnesses, should have the right to ask for the DNA to be removed, said the council. Can you believe they can't now? These days you can only ask, 'Where does it end?' -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

There are a series of short essays in response to Jonathan Haidt's essay Moral Philosophy and the Misunderstanding of Religion . Worth reading if only to see the range of responses from New Atheism (what ever that means). -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

1st Question: How good is the CIA?     From its founding in aftermath of WWII and the OSS/CIG to the expulsion of James Jesus Angleton as the head of Counter-Intelligence, its record is spotty if you are in a very, very generous mood. A new book discusses . (Via The Register ) Also rec'd Tom Mangold's Cold Warrior . 2nd Question: Is there any information about torture online?     Turns out that OmniBrain covers the release of an old torture manual online. That is if you missed Boing Boing highlighting it. Of course the question of culpability is always up in the air, but it appears that somebody thinks torturers are liable for the way they treat people. 3rd Question: How goes personal freedoms in all this?     Well, just to make sure we're all suspected of something, along comes a judge in the UK with this little ditty . I'm sure it'll help catch terrorists... I keep wondering what the hell is wrong with the UK. Oops, there go those fr...

HT to Cajoje Fame Eat Your Face -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

Somebody's got their panties in a bunch over this . I'm looking at you, Donohue . By the way, I'm an Irishman too, so shut up while I'm talking. Remember: Blasphemy is a victimless crime. Dick. -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

-- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

What is is about some people that makes them give a shit about what other people do in their bedrooms? Especially if they're in possession of similar plumbing? I only care if there's video available, but not that grainy, jittery internet shit... I'm drifting slightly. But the point remains...sorry I hadn't actually gotten to the point. My point: how empty is your life that you worry about what two other people do in bed? Empty lives like a certain bishop in Nigeria: UPI reports : The Anglican Bishop of Uyo, Rt. Rev. Isaac Orama, has condemned the activities of homosexuals and lesbians, and described those engaged in them as "insane people''. "It is scaring that any one should be involved in a thing like that and I want to say that they will not escape the wrath of God,'' he said. Orama told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) today in Uyo, that the practice, which has worsened over the years, was "unbiblical and against God's purpose ...

Here's your answer Via Crooks and Liars -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

The Register reports : Church hall bans 'unchristian' yoga for nippers Young minds saved from spiritual perversion A Somerset church has banned toddlers from practising yoga in its hall because the "unchristian" practice "promoted other spiritualities", the BBC reports. Come on people, how fucking stupid is this? The worst thing that will come out of kids practicing yoga is that they'll turn into smelly hippies with a taste for tofu granola. -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

A classic Canadian song from the 80s that I had almost forgotten. Hooray for YouTube. -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

Not when this is the shit they pull. -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."