According to an advert I've just seen, 1 in four women have difficulty in reading a pregnancy test.
Hey! You, yes you 1 in four!
If you're not intelligent enough to read a pregnancy test:
I found an interesting article on Atheist quotes which had gained a respectable number of diggs and discovered a fascinating collection of comments in reponse to the article.
I posted a reply to someone who was having a hard time coming to terms with their belief system as they were contemplating discarding it in favour of a more natural, physical system. I include my reply here:
I was religious for a while. Out of my own choice — not from any form of "education" or pressure — I chose to believe for a short period of my life and I put my trust that the world was a good, moral and constructive place in the hands of the subject of my faith.
After a year or so I started to learn that there was a lot to this place that doesn't need a god or controlling influence. Evolution, or natural selection, can — even to molecular and cosmic extremes — take care of any question you may need to ask.
The universe is endlessly evolving. You are part of it, physically related to the stars you gaze upon at night, the people you love and relate to and the atoms and forces that tie it all together.
Realise your place in amongst all of this and decide for yourself how you want to deal with it.
Read books on chaos theory, quantum mechanics, cosmology, physics, genetics, evolutionary biology or artificial intelligence. You've probably already read your holy book. They're hard to read, but that's because of the language, not the concepts they're communicating. Language can be learned and this is in itself an enlightening process.
Most importantly of all, make a balanced decision. Talk to and listen to people, not to piggyback upon their beliefs, but rather to understand how they arrive at the decisions that shape their lives. Of course, this may or may not help, but at least you'll meet interesting people along the way and become better at communication and understanding. This will all help.
Never forget that people are more important than beliefs. If anyone gets that bit wrong, they're in for a rough ride.
As for Jesus Christ, he may well have existed. However, after two thousand and seven years it is difficult to know who he was or where he came from but the identity of his father is a mystery to me.
There has been a lot of mud slung right across the web as one of the largest domain registrars, Network Solutions, have apparently taken to the practice of registering domains that people have searched for using their domain search tool.
Normally, you can go to a domain registrar's website, type in what you're after and click search. You'll get a list of available domains with the various .com, .net, .uk or whatever in a list from which you can choose which domains you want to then register.
Skip back a bit. Once the list of available domains appears on Network Solution's website you will find — for a period, at least — that the domain will be unavailable if you then search for it through another registrar.
Here, I'll prove it. Just before I posted this entry, I searched for network-solutions-blow.com on their site, was told that it was not registered by anybody else and was therefore available (surprisingly). I then immediately flipped over to 123-reg.co.uk to search for the domain there. The search revealed that my prospective domain had already been taken, although a whois showed that it was still available.
Of course, I could still buy the domain through Network Solutions, but the domain isn't freely available through any other registrar.
Bear in mind that all I've done here is ask a company if a domain is available. I have not agreed to anything, paid anything or asked for anything other than the availability of the domain, yet it has effectively been withdrawn from other registrars.
This level of underhandedness is a sure fire way to undermine the confidence of every businessman or entrepreneur in the market for a website or thinking of getting into the web.
Congratulations Comcast. Out-of-orderness on a grand scale means that Network Solutions is now my new pet web hate.
Don't search for domain availability through Network Solutions.
You know it makes sense.
...but only just. 1 o' clock in the afternoon, I have just finished boiled eggs on toast, the first solid food to have passed my lips in something like 48 hours.
After a gig at a local pub in the Borders of Scotland, I spent the rest of "Auld Year's Night" in increasing states of drunkenness until some time after 4 am. New Year's Day was an ill, migraine-ridden write off.
However, looking back at 2007 from the warmth of a mild 2nd of January, I have to say that I am excited to be witnessing the world as it is, and anticipating what may be to come.
With advances in medicine, social technology and the increasing prevalence of the Internet, I can't wait to see what 2008 might bring.
So, if you're capable, charge your glasses once again and toast the New Year and all the change that it will bring.
Cheers!
