I recently started reading Jeffrey Tayler on Salon.com; he is also a contributing editor for The Atlantic. In Salon, he writes a weekly column in which he fiercely attacks religion (for example, We must offend religion more: Islam, Christianity and our tolerance for ancient myths, harmful ideas and It’s time to fight religion: Toxic drivel, useful media idiots, and the real story about faith and violence). This lead me to purchase his latest book, Topless Jihadis: Inside Femen, the World’s Most Provocative Activist Group. It is only offered as a Kindle book on Amazon, otherwise it could be described as a “slim volume” of 94 pages.
Jesus and Mo on the money again
27 May 2015 by Leave a Comment
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Vatican calls Irish referendum a ‘defeat for humanity’
27 May 2015 by Leave a Comment
“I believe that we are talking here not just about a defeat for Christian principles but also about a defeat for humanity,” Cardinal Parolin told reporters
via Vatican calls Irish referendum a ‘defeat for humanity’.
This is the attitude rejected by 62% of the Irish voters. Well done them.
Ben Bashs
25 May 2015 by Leave a Comment
For Stokes on 99, McCullum can only summon up two slips, a gully, and a regulation field. Stokes has slapped the funk out of McCullum. Bashed the attacking right out of New Zealand. It took him 85 balls.
via cricket with balls | just another bullshit cricket blog.
Another great post by Jarrod Kimber about a special innings.
Jesus vs Doctor Who
14 May 2015 by Leave a Comment
You can stumble across all kinds of stuff on the web. I found this on God Told Me To Tell You, which seems to have had no activity since November 2011. Made me laugh.
The Dissent Of Man by JF Derry: Unbound
11 May 2015 by Leave a Comment
This project is an attempt to explore the huge range of interpretations of Darwinism. To do this I’ve interviewed over fifty commentators: conservationists and creationists, bishops and biochemists, palaeoceanographers and Intelligent Design theorists, theistic evolutionists and a Bahá’í lecturer, sex researchers, mathematicians, ophthalmologists, linguists, evangelical Christians, philosophers, physicians and the Astronomer Royal. As a starting point, I asked each one the same question: ‘what does Darwin mean to you as an individual, and as part of humanity?’
via The Dissent Of Man by JF Derry: Unbound.
Sponsorship of this book seems to have stalled. I think it is a worthwhile project. Please consider offering your support.
I have no connection to the author except that I have also pledged.
Skippers Canyon
11 May 2015 by Leave a Comment
On our short trip in and out of Skippers Canyon, we enjoyed one of the more dramatic landscapes of our visit to New Zealand.
Skippers Road, part of which you can see in the photo, is pretty scary. It’s not very wide with a long, bumpy fall off to one side. If you have a hire car, the insurance doesn’t cover you to drive Skippers Road.
Skippers Canyon (some part of it) was also use as a location in Lord of the Rings.
You can find some more of my photos of Skippers Canyon here.
Hobbiton
5 May 2015 by Leave a Comment
As we are big Lord of The Rings fans, one of the highlights for Gia and me on our recent trip to New Zealand was the Hobbiton tour. The movie set is in Matamata; it was about 50-minutes’ coach-ride from Rotorua where we were staying.
The Green Dragon by the lake
The story we were told was that Peter Jackson had sent scouts around NZ looking for suitable locations for LOTR. The scout arrived at this 1200-acre sheep farm on a Saturday afternoon while the owner was watching rugby on TV. Given permission to take a look, the scout had three principle criteria for Hobbiton: hillside, a large tree and a lake. Apparently, Jackson loved the site so much that he discarded previously shot footage from a dozen sites.
oddrops 