Sex, Religion and Politics: The Holy Trinity of Perfect Dinner Conversations.
Richard Dawkins' asserts that belief in god is irrational and inflicts great harm upon societies. Jeremy Paxman interviews Professor Dawkins as part of the Newsnight book club.
posted by Father Dan | 12:04 AM
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If you are trying to commit something to memory, take a nap. Even a short daytime snooze could help you learn.
A good night's sleep is known to improve people's ability to learn actions such as mirror writing. REM sleep, when most dreaming occurs, is thought to be particularly important.
The role of sleep in factual learning has been less clear. Now Matthew Tucker at The City University of New York and his colleagues have shown that even a nap with no REM sleep can help.
Volunteers were told to memorise pairs of words (a test of factual learning) and to practise tracing images in a mirror (action learning). When they were tested straight afterwards and 6 hours later, those who had been allowed a nap of up to 1 hour before the re-test scored 15 per cent better in the factual test than the non-nappers, but no better in the action test (Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, vol 86, p 241).
"Traditionally, time devoted to daytime napping has been considered counterproductive," the researchers say. It now seems sleep is "an important mechanism for memory formation".
posted by Father Dan | 9:17 PM
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Who has controlled the Middle East over the course of history? Pretty much everyone. Egyptians, Turks, Jews, Romans, Arabs, Greeks, Persians, Europeans...the list goes on. Who will control the Middle East today? That is a much bigger question.
posted by Father Dan | 7:02 PM
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Police have warned fish farmers to increase their security after 15,000 halibut were released from their cages in an attack believed to have been carried out by animal rights activists.
Thousands of dead fish are being washed up along the west coast of Scotland after the raid at Kames Marine Fish Farm, near Oban. The perpetrators are thought to have attacked last week. Detectives believe that the attack could be linked to a spate of other farm attacks throughout the country. The letters ALF (Animal Liberation Front) were spray-painted near by.
The loss is estimated to have cost the fish farm at least $500,000 as boats, cranes and offices were also vandalised. The halibut died from starvation or getting caught in seaweed. They were also being eaten by herring gulls and otters.
The fish farmer, who did not wish to be identified, said: "They claim they liberated them into the sea but sadly, as we all know, farmed animals, whether they are fish or any animals, don't survive unless they are looked after.
The fish farmer added: "We farm them in a sustainable way. The welfare of the fish is at the forefront of our minds. Isn't it better to have farmed fish than to be pillaging the seas where stocks are declining dramatically?"
Fish farms in Scotland, Kent and the South West have been attacked in the past year.
posted by Father Dan | 7:02 PM
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A good friend will come and bail you out of jail, but a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn, that was fun!"
posted by Father Dan | 7:02 PM
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This illustrates how much we've become dependent on our computers.
Are you male or female?
To know the answer, look down!!!
Not here, Stupid!
posted by Father Dan | 7:01 PM
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According to the TSA, "weapons" is defined as a rifle, shotgun, pistol, airgun, and STARTER PISTOL. Yes, starter pistols - those little guns that fire blanks at track and swim meets - are considered weapons...and do NOT have to be registered in any state in the United States.
I have a starter pistol for all my cases. All I have to do upon check-in is tell the airline ticket agent that I have a weapon to declare...I'm given a little card to sign, the card is put in the case, the case is given to a TSA official who takes my key and locks the case, and gives my key back to me.
That's the procedure. The case is extra-tracked...TSA does not want to lose a weapons case. This reduces the chance of the case being lost to virtually zero.
It's a great way to travel with camera gear...I've been doing this since Dec 2001 and have had no problems whatsoever.
posted by Father Dan | 6:34 PM
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From Boing Boing: 
myFairTunes 6 is the latest iteration of a recent series of cracks for tracks purchased from the iTunes Music Store. It converts your music from the iTunes Music Store proprietary format to MP3s that you can play on any pocket-player, without having to go to the bother of burning your purchased music to a CD and re-ripping them (something that's not practical with expensive audiobooks, anyway). This is presently Windows-only, and only runs in real-time (meaning that it takes 16 hours to rip a 16h audio-book), but they're promising a 6x realtime upgrade with the next version, and a Mac version can't be far behind. Link
posted by Father Dan | 6:30 PM
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While women often complain of their spouses’ inability to help them experience orgasm on a frequent basis, a recent survey reveals that females are more likely to 'climax' during lesbian sex than straight sex.
Just under 69 per cent of women questioned in the survey climaxed during their last heterosexual encounter compared to 76 per cent who did so while romping with another female, reports The Sun.
posted by Father Dan | 12:56 PM
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Any Westerner who has been to Japan will inevitably talk about the omnipresent vending machines. The beer ones were my favorite.
PhotoMann recently decided to 'collect' images of unique vending machines found in Japan. They are everywhere. Estimates suggest there are 5.6 million vending machines which works out to be one for every 20 people in Japan.
Sales from vending machines in 2000 totaled $56 billion! The most common are drink and cigarette machines followed by machines with pornography. Here is a sampling of the machines to be found.