An investment in knowledge pays the best interest......Benjamin Franklin.

Fernapple comments on Jun 24, 2019:

And is the most fun.

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 24, 2019:

Would not want to get things right, then they would be out of a job.

Canada. Just read that Quebec government has passed a bill barring schoolteachers, police officers,...

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2019:

Therefore you can not wear your 'agnostic.com' tee shirt.

Canada. Just read that Quebec government has passed a bill barring schoolteachers, police officers,...

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2019:

To my mind oppressive if true. And likely to fuel rather than reduce religious belief, religion thrives under oppression.

From your personal experience, are some people simply not wired (say, neurologically or ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2019:

Yes but is it that some people are hard wired for belief, or is it that some people lack the wiring for skeptical thinking. Until language came along, (Quite late in evolutionary terms.) we could have had virtually no culture, why therefore would we have any evolved traits to deal with the consequences of culture, especially its abilities to manipulate us ?

Two Questions??

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2019:

Want to die in the forest so that the animals can eat, if not, compost. Same for my pets.

What do you think about Deism?

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2019:

A god who hides, is from a practical point of view, exactly the same as one who does not exist; therefore its a none issue.

2015 Taken from Marin County side.

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2019:

Best view of it I have seen.

Who? Me prejudiced? FYI. All countries. [curiosity.com]?

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2019:

It does not help of course that if you are old, you are often old/mature enough to not give a dam anyway.

Every time we think we know something, we find there's more to learn! A new species of 'cat fox' ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2019:

It is only a few years since even here in the UK, which has to be one of the most closely recorded places on earth, that we discovered that our commonest bat, was not one, as alway thought, but two species. Even now, we have very poor knowledge of even the large animals and plants, and only the faintest idea about the small things, every few square miles of forest destroyed, not only could, but at the smallest level undoubtedly does, contain things never recorded and never to be seen again.

A interesting walk on the beach

Fernapple comments on Jun 22, 2019:

That's what they want you to think !

You're....

Fernapple comments on Jun 22, 2019:

Normal. (Most people have no problem doing it.)

Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.....Charlotte ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 22, 2019:

The Brontes certainly had plenty of experience of life's shortness. It sounds very much like Charlotte, who was the hard headed and business like sister, and who virtually invented the posthumous celebrity persona of Emily, and outlived her siblings to be the first one to build a life away from the tight closed village community.

I’ve been claiming to be Agnostic for over a year and a half now, but I’m leaning more towards ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 22, 2019:

A lot of people have taken that route before you, you are far from alone. I always regard myself as an agnostic atheist, since I can not prove that something supernatural does not exist, therefore atheism is a belief. But it is not hard to prove that the god of the bible or any other religious dogma does not exist, so I also call myself a ' broad church skeptic ' , since any god which does not communicate, is for all practical purposes, no different to no god at all, and therefore the really big important thing is to have left dogma behind, the rest is small stuff.

We have just reached the top of the analemma. Comment if you know what this is, or how it could be ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 21, 2019:

Speed at which day length changes.

To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with......Mark Twain.

Fernapple comments on Jun 21, 2019:

Sharing is perhaps the only thing which stops joys fading with age, and in the end you learn it is perhaps the only real one there ever was.

"Hyenas Roamed The Arctic During The Last Ice Age Modern hyenas stalk the savannas of Asia and ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 21, 2019:

Hyena remains have been found in caves in Yorkshire England along with the bones etc which they dragged in to what must have been their den.

Latest on Tory leadership contest ....looking more like it’s going to be Boris. The pundits ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 20, 2019:

Come on, I come to this site to escape the news about these sad b-------s. Having said which maybe all the anti Boris will get behind Gove.

Over the years I have realised that my motivations are more philanthropic than for material ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 20, 2019:

It could be the limits of our ability to see. I used to work for a big corporation and it seemed utterly pointless. Then I set up my own business, and have been a sole trader for more than thirty years, my whole working life revolves around serving my customers and since there is only me, (plus one other for a while,) the one to one relationship I have with them. It maybe that when I worked for the company, my positive contribution to the world and the wellbeing of its people was greater than it is now, but it did not seem so.

Love my cute little freaky ferns - yes, ferns! And I do so wish I had been more careful in recording...

Fernapple comments on Jun 20, 2019:

I think that the one on the left is maybe not a fern but a Saxifrage.

Humility is the ability to give up your pride and still retain your dignity......Vanna Bonta ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 20, 2019:

You could even say, 'and win greater dignity'.

I am wondering to what extent people decide to be atheist/agnostic or just grow out of religion

Fernapple comments on Jun 20, 2019:

Was not raised to be religious in any meaningful sense, and so I grew up knowing little of it, but always assumed that the religious were basically good people with basically good philosophies. Then in my later years in education, I met with theist teachers and found that they were opposed to everything that I thought valuable and beautiful, and that they were often the most arrogant, self absorbed and shallow people who stood against every thing that seemed good in the world, for entirely selfish and greedy reasons, the shock of that has never left me.

New Mars Curiosity Rover Pictures [youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2019:

Beautiful, not almost Earth like, just Earth like. Pity about the poisonous atmosphere, the radiation, and the extreme cold, but some people think that London makes a good holiday destination, so that does not put them off.

Fascinating article! California scientists unravel genetic mysteries of world’s tallest trees ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2019:

The only slight problem I can see with that is that if humans actively start to manage the trees at a genetic level, only planting trees of certain genetic types in certain places. Then there could be a threat to the trees genetic diversity, surely it would be best to use the knowledge to replant as wide a range as possible everywhere possible, and then leave it to nature, (natural selection) to sort them out.

After over a decade of mostly ignoring, shutting down, or being more than a little combative in the ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2019:

Always good to talk and even better not to have expectations.

Can Humanism Overcome Hate? - TheHumanist.com

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2019:

No hate is an inherent human instinct and it must find an outlet. Someone once said that, if you could ever get the whole world to accept just one philosophy as true and to agree on it, then it would have to immediately split into the orthodox and the reformed movement, who would immediately start hating and fighting each other. What you could do however is to change the nature of the combat, you could change the moral frame of the whole world to a point where physical violence is completely unacceptable, and hatred can only be expressed by perhaps say some form of token humiliation, that would theoretically be possible, I think. However unless we take some form of active genetic managing of the human genome, then we are still subject to evolution, and at this time, since the technology of medicine etc. has, at least in the developed world, removed a lot of the cost and danger of violence without affecting the benefits, it seems likely that we will become increasingly violent with time and less socially functional. Also perhaps more sexually dimorphic, ( A big yob who repeatedly rapes his multiple girlfriends, and the passive girlfriends who put up with it, produce more babies. ) until perhaps we go extinct, because some perhaps small problem arises and we no longer have the intelligence or social cohesion to deal with it.

Do you suspect there is an evangelical arm of atheism that wants to convert religious practitioners ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2019:

What is religious thinking ? Is it, "I must be nice to people and the planet because it would be wrong to offend against the gentle spirit." or is it, "We have to kill all who do not conform to our rightful doctrine, because god tells us that even allowing their existence is a stain on our souls." ? What sort of religion? Because if you evangelize against the first then you are wasting time and are intolerant, and if you do not evangelize against the second, then you share the guilt of those who stand by silent and thereby condone crimes with their silence. The question is the sort of over simplified, 'either or' duality beloved of appologists who want to put a stop to thinking.

A question I have pondering upon for some time. WHY is it that some seem to NEED that we must make ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2019:

Deeply sorry for your loss. In many ways there is no such thing as death, at least not a state of being dead, there is only life which is finite and like all finite things it has two ends. What matters, is not how long you live, because none of us live more than a blink, but what you do with the time, and most of all, how much joy you bring while you are here. In grief too, and it may not work for you, though it works for me, trying to make a contribution and bringing joy into the world yourself is often the best comfort, because then you give your daughter a living legacy, and if nothing else keeping yourself busy helps.

Call me Mr Stupid if you like but I am even more confused about Brexit than I have been before! ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2019:

I am not pro-brexit particularly, but I do have to say that it was a sad day for democracy when the vote was passed, since it was plain that it would never happen. The political establishment had too much invested in Europe, plus too much corruption to be uncovered. My thought at the time was that, they will argue and fudge and complicate endlessly, until everyone has lost every thread, and then produce something out of the mess that no one, not even they, can understand, but which is designed to look like brexit without really being brexit. And guess what is happening.

I wholeheartedly endorse this: "I was born with a reading list I will never finish." - Maud ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2019:

Too many books, too many gardens, too many mountains, too many charming villages, too many sea front cafes, too many pubs.

What are your favorite song lyrics?

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

Yesterday. Makes me sad every time I hear it, then I get a lift.

Conservative Christian Activist Warns Masturbation Is Gay Sex | Michael Stone

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

Perhaps he is so ignorant of his holy book that he does not realize that it forbids masturbation anyway. They forbid every other form of sex, does he really think they missed that one.

"As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields." "It doesn’t matter in what...

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

Love Tolstoy quotes, he seemed to be completely out of step with the century he lived in.

“If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities“ — Voltaire (1694-1778) ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

True, but sadly a lot of the time it does happen.

Thinking about a recent post by Freethinkingxx, it occurred to me that there should be local ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

There is a UK group already and a couple more I think, but half the fun is communicating with people everywhere, especially, as being a gardener, I love to hear about gardening and wildlife in other climes.

Does anyone else struggle with hating religion? It is a daily struggle, letting go of hate, as I ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

Pity the victims, (including all genuine believers) hate the idea. Not complicated, it only gets difficult when some believers use it to expliot or abuse others.

Does anyone else think the depth and breadth of discourse about religious detriment on this site has...

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

Don't forget that this is a site for a wide range of people, if you want in depth, go to the groups where the experts meet. But do not forget that there are many people out there who are only just starting down the road, and they are often the people with the greatest need for help, understanding at a beginners level, support and perhaps just somewhere to vent. If you have climbed out of the cesspit of ignorance, at the top of the ladder you can turn round and give a helping hand to those still climbing, or you can kick them in the face for being slow. Choice.

Passive aggressive gardening

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

Weeding gets you closer to nature than anything, it is the nearest thing modern humans ever get to do to our natural state of hunter gathering.

Passive aggressive gardening

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

You have to learn to love the weeding, since nature gives and gives, for every plant you put in, there are a thousand to take out. Gardener = weeder.

God, Incorporated: The Big Business of Religion - YouTube

Fernapple comments on Jun 16, 2019:

Always was a business, always will be, should always be treated as such.

Sunflowers coming in nicely .

Fernapple comments on Jun 15, 2019:

All in a row. They will look really grand even before they flower.

What is happening in America to stop Female Genital Mutilation these days? I'm told that only half ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 15, 2019:

It is one thing to make it illegal and quite another to enforce it. It has been illegal for years in the UK, but because it often takes place in secret, the victims are ashamed to come forward and the legal authorities are nervous about offending ethnic minorities and religions, years went by without a single case being brought to the courts.

The last few years has greatly increased my use of Talk Radio - particularly on LBC -London ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 15, 2019:

No reporting can ever be without bias. Which is why it is good tio listen to and read as wide a range as you can.

The Unrepentant Tresspasser is on shaky ground......

Fernapple comments on Jun 14, 2019:

There are some things for which you should never repent, and some of them are even more fun when illegal.

“The All Scripture Baptist Church includes its belief in the death penalty for homosexuality in ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 13, 2019:

The King James is also thought by many, historians especially, to be one of the most dishonest versions of the bible. The editors made large additions and alterations to the texts they were working from, including extra laws and commandments, many extra verses and an extra version of the resurrection.

When I read the following I start to have some small understanding of how far down the ladder ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 13, 2019:

Lucius in the 'Golden Ass' a well known satirical novel from the early Christian era of the Roman Empire, is transformed into a donkey, and in that form goes through a whole series of adventures. In the end he is saved by the goddess, who describes the Ass as the most unhappy and despised of creatures. It is usually said that no one today knows why that should be the case, and yet if this is was the popular way to mock Christians at the time, that could be one possible reason, which would explain a lot.

I know its maybe a bit petty but is there any chance we could just have a heart emoji as well as the...

Fernapple comments on Jun 11, 2019:

The list of emoji used to have one if I remember correctly, but it was removed along with several others during a spring cleaning. I keep asking for a "thank you" but so far no joy.

Reddit - atheism - My boyfriend is a Christian and I'm agnostic. We tried to have a conversation ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 11, 2019:

You are lucky, if he shut up after not understanding, it is the ones who keep on talking after not understanding who are really annoying. Don't wish to seem flip, since I know this must be a real painful issue for you, but think about it, if he did not try to convert you there and then, the you a half way to a compromise.

I know that I am mortal by nature, and ephemeral; but when I trace at my pleasure the winding's to ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 11, 2019:

Some people do like their astronomy! But seriously the power of appreciation is surely the way best way to joy, the failing of education is not just bad because it makes people less useful and more likely to be criminal, but mostly because it steals from them the greatest source of happiness.

There are three things in the world that deserve no mercy; hypocrisy, fraud and ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 10, 2019:

Boy! I am glad I did not know him. Mercy depends surely on the motives and the circumstance rather than the name of the crime, and as I think that nearly everyone including me has committed all of those to some small degree at some time, I can only assume that he did not have many friends.

"Confronting the question most commonly asked of the growing number of Americans who support ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 10, 2019:

As a none American I can not really comment on these issues about which I have only a limited fringe knowledge. But from the outsiders view. Is it not also true, that if you make a huge profit making industry out of medicine, with only a finite number of customers. Will they not then try to sell you far more medicine than you need, even to the point where it is worse for you than your illness ?

God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller and ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 9, 2019:

People once worshiped a mother goddess because they had not worked out how you got pregnant; then the great father when they had. That was back in the late Stone Age early Bronze Age, and the gaps have been getting smaller ever since, perhaps shrinking is the deities best trick.

On the way to the barn dance. California Hwy 94...the road to Campo. Fourteen miles of hill country...

Fernapple comments on Jun 9, 2019:

Beautiful country. I love those little corners of ordinary lonely roads, where among the brush you may find a small bird or wildflower which no eyes but yours may ever see, and no other mind appreciate had you not come by.

This is chilling.

Fernapple comments on Jun 8, 2019:

And no one ever got rich or powerful by telling people. You are doing fine and don't need anything now.

And be kind while you're at it.

Fernapple comments on Jun 8, 2019:

OK quote of the month.

It pains me to block ladies. Women need to support each other.

Fernapple comments on Jun 8, 2019:

If I was you I certainly would not loose any sleep over it. If I guess correctly who it is, she does that to everyone. As to editing, I always edit, edit and edit again, it does not make me a good writer, but it is just the way of writing which seems to come naturally to me, never thought of doing it any other way.

Here is my lovely hometown... bergamo arttown

Fernapple comments on Jun 7, 2019:

Beautiful. what more can be said.

The oleanders are a bit thin because of the lack of water this winter and spring.

Fernapple comments on Jun 7, 2019:

They still look very good to me, I wish we could grow them here, they always remind me of the Med.

Soloists, choir, orchestra of the Volksoper Wien offered a special performance to passengers and ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 7, 2019:

Not like the buskers round here, sad.

Really useful on soil restoration - [ecofarmingdaily.com]

Fernapple comments on Jun 7, 2019:

Another factor of course could be that we have bred increasingly "high yield" crops, which are just bred to put on as much weight as possible with no regard to nutrient content, or flavour for that mater.

Defending the truth is not something one does out of a sense of duty or to allay guilt complexes, ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 6, 2019:

And it can be fun.

I'm not sure if this question should be directed to @sitesupport or @admin. My cool new S9 phone ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 6, 2019:

I always make my photos 1200 square pics max. Since few people if any will be viewing them on screens which will show bigger photos to any effect, and fewer will be magnifying parts of them, most people indeed will be looking at them on phones and therefore even that will be more than is useful. You could adjust your phones time out settings but there is no point, your cameras extra resolution is only useful if making large prints, most screens will not benefit from it anyway.

If an extra terrestrial civilisation came to visit which world leader would we want to meet with ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 5, 2019:

If they are highly intelligent, enough to master stellar flight, and if they are not more interested in talking to ants or dolphins, then they have probably scanned all our media and chosen someone you have never heard of for themselves. Or even. "Take your leaders away, your new president is Fred Johnston of 2 Lime Tree Avenue." LOL

Here is a doctor with some interesting and valuable information for both men and women. ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 5, 2019:

I don't agree quite with the basic. "In Western Medicine, drugs are created to treat symptoms as opposed to treating the root cause of the condition." It is certainly true to a large extent but not without many exceptions. Also we have to be grateful here in the UK, that the drugs companies do at least have to find round about ways to get doctors to sell their products for them, (though they are very good at bribery). It must be terrible to live in countries where medicine is an industry directly marketing its products at the population, and maximum sales, rather than health, are seen as the end product.

The word “happy” would lose it’s meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.......Carl Jung.

Fernapple comments on Jun 5, 2019:

A good quote though Plato said much the same thing many centuries before, when he said that pleasure and sadness had their tails tied together.

Politics has slain its thousands,but religion has slain its tens of thousands. Sean O'Casey ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 5, 2019:

And not just slain in the violent sense, but how many millions died because religion encouraged poor hygiene, bad medical practices, dangerous rituals and and slowed technical progress ?

Yes we do...

Fernapple comments on Jun 4, 2019:

We all pick and choose our morals, but some do it openly, try to use rational thought to get there and are open to criticism, while others check to find their prejudices are confirmed in books so garbled they could mean anything, and then claim that they have been given them by authority.

In their time, these had to have been some of the most beautiful homes in the world . . . . from ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 4, 2019:

Ironic that death and destruction alone has preserved them when those that continued in use crumbled away.

Nighttime photography, Chihuly glass sculpture, Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens.

Fernapple comments on Jun 4, 2019:

Wow that looks alive, taking it at night really makes it seem something special that i think it would not in daylight.

Why do you use agnostic.com? I have learned a lot about myself using agnostic.com. What do I ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 4, 2019:

Yes sometimes the stories are almost too hard to read, they certainly make my small troubles seem easy to endure. Grounded yes.

I've posted this before but every time I do I get berated for doing so. I don't know how to accept ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 4, 2019:

No words have meanings, only usages. They are just tags which we attach to ideas which we can move and change, and do move and change, at will. If we are lucky those tags attach to approximately, ( never exactly ) the same ideas in the minds of others and that helps us to communicate. However because words form a major part of human culture, ( and having first fallen for the error of thinking that culture is a source of truth ) it is very easy to fall into the error of thinking that words contain inherent truths, which they do not. They are just arbitrary cultural and historical accidents, even less likely to contain truth than the human cultures which create them. It is because words are quite arbitrary and totally without inherent truth, and form such a major part of culture, that humans are enabled so easily to create cultures quite divorced from truth or reality.

In 1633, Galileo was ordered by the church to stand trial on suspicion of heresy, because he said ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 4, 2019:

At the time, his "crime" in the churches eyes, of claiming to have seen moons around the planet Jupiter was regarded as almost more serious. He then went on to do work in secret with air, using a vacuum which would have got him into even more trouble because that was another thing the church said could not happen.

Please someone come and get your stupid president and take him back? I am not being rude and I hate ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 3, 2019:

Go on be generous, let the US have a few days off.

“You are not controlling the storm, and you are not lost in it. You are the storm.” Sam Harris

Fernapple comments on Jun 3, 2019:

We are a storm which is doing horrible damage across the face of the planet.

There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 3, 2019:

Or you can just stand. Which is sometimes enough.

I see Donald Trump is doing his best to undermine Boris Johnson in his bid to lead the Tory party ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 1, 2019:

Yep that should do it.

Death is impatient and thoughtless. It barges into your room when you are right in the middle of ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 1, 2019:

You can be ready for your own, but never for that of those around you.

The Great Agnostic "Col. Robert G. Ingersoll" (1833-1899)

Fernapple comments on Jun 1, 2019:

Listened to a bit, sounds wonderful. Thanks for the link.

Swedish Rhapsody. - Hugo Alfven, performed by Symphonique de Montreal, conductor Charles Dutoit....

Fernapple comments on May 30, 2019:

Like the mood change half way through.

“ We ignore public understanding of science at our peril. ” Eugenie Scott. Do you agree?...

Fernapple comments on May 27, 2019:

Since science is the main tool we use to understand the world today, allowing people to opt out of any attempt to understand it, is the same as allowing them to opt out of attempting to understand the world. Which is why people who find the world threatening, because fear is a marketable product for the increasingly powerful pop media despite the fact that in many ways the world has never been safer, want to a opt out of science. And those who want to use them increasingly pander to that. Science has been naive in thinking that the more truth it discovered the more it would be loved, thinking that everyone valued truth just as the scientific community does, and failed to see that the more successful you are at finding truth the more you will be opposed by those interests lie in squashing it. It is naive to think that the value of truth will sell itself, or that success will not breed enemies.

Have you ever been annoyed by just the sight or voice of a person?

Fernapple comments on May 27, 2019:

Yes I think that the fashion for wearing a collar back to front is really annoying.

Puppet Muhammad loves equality too. 🙄🙄🙄😑😑🤣🤣🤣

Fernapple comments on May 27, 2019:

Funny how god always gives you what you want. Could not be a better fit if you dreamed him up for yourself.

Why is it people that say "I hate mean people, stuck-up people, people who can't take a joke, and ...

Fernapple comments on May 27, 2019:

You see the world though the lens of your own eyes.

Does this group do anything consrtuctive that benefits society?

Fernapple comments on May 27, 2019:

It provides a social support group for many who are doing a lot of good out there, and especially the lonely and isolated. It gives a platform for people to explore their moral understanding, which makes them better at engaging with the larger society. It educates, (see the many groups). And most of all it helps to promote healthy skeptical thinking, out into the wider world by encouraging skeptics.

SUBJECT... I WANT TO GET RICH, SHOULD I OPEN A CHURCH? Go to "Alan McPherson " Facebook.

Fernapple comments on May 27, 2019:

A church is a profit making business just like any other. But it does not have to manufacture any product, does not have to deliver until after the customer is dead, so no returns. And the other customers (congregation) do most of the marketing, and P.R. plus raise nearly all of the finances, without expecting any return on their shares. Wow, that is some business plan !

Landscapes: some more oldies (which is pretty much all I have these days) — 1: Cradle ...

Fernapple comments on May 26, 2019:

Wonder how many of those views are still the same.

Selfishness as a virtue?

Fernapple comments on May 25, 2019:

I do not agree, but it is true that misplaced or ill thought out altruism perhaps does more harm in the world overall than bad intent.

Does anyone feel Buddhism (or some sects of it or some parts of it) is more of a philosophy or way ...

Fernapple comments on May 24, 2019:

Most religions contain an element of philosophy, that does not mean they are not also religions, just as most farmers have a garden, but that does not mean they are gardeners not farmers.

According to the latest OECD report based on seriously outdated (2014) numbers one in four ...

Fernapple comments on May 23, 2019:

It is often proposed in many countries, that politicians should have a pay/pension rates based on national statistics, as an incentive to improve wealth imbalance. But that ignores the fact that most politicians, in most countries, make the greater of their income from expenses, (some honestly some not ) and doing so would only encourage greater misuse, and therefore less honesty and clarity.

Took these today(late afternoon) a park near my place.

Fernapple comments on May 23, 2019:

Good park, the parks near me are good enough but do not offer anything like that.

So...um, it’s almost June but no one told Colorado.

Fernapple comments on May 22, 2019:

Ouch !

The only difference between a cult and a religion is the amount of real estate they own. - Frank ...

Fernapple comments on May 21, 2019:

Or how old they are. Which in some ways is the same thing since they acquire real estate over time.

Do atheists value life more than theists considering that they don't believe in a afterlife

Fernapple comments on May 19, 2019:

In a philosophical sense yes, and I think we value this world more because it is the only one we have. But in a day to day sense, no. Many years ago I was in hospital and was told that I would die, it turned out in the end that there was not much wrong with me and that could be fixed, which was a nice surprise. (Though it would have been even nicer if they had not scared me in the first place.) Yet I swore on leaving hospital that from then on I would live every day as if it was to be my last, but of course you don't, you soon put it behind you and slip into a regular day to day, just like everybody else.

A bit haunting. Love it!

Fernapple comments on May 19, 2019:

Maybe they have been reading D. Adams "Hitchhykers guide to the galaxy."

I have been thinking about getting married again after so many years of being a widower. Do you ...

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2019:

It is not about wisdom, it is just something you either have to do or not.

Should schools continue teaching Arabic numerals?

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2019:

Ask the protestants if they want a catholic calender brought in by a pope and based on the ancient Roman model taught to their children in schools as well, and then count how many say. "No we want the old one we always had."

"Selection for Tuskless Elephants Working in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, Dr. Joyce Poole ...

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2019:

I have also heard that sea fish are getting smaller and becoming sexually mature at smaller sizes. Because of course we fish for them with nets, and smaller fish pass through the mesh.

"Selection for Tuskless Elephants Working in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, Dr. Joyce Poole ...

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2019:

It could change the whole ecology, since elephants have a big effect on the flora and if tuskless elephants dig and bark strip less, then that could lead to all sorts of changes.

The Future Energy - Top 10 Energy Sources --- 10. Space-based solar power --- 9. Human Power...

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2019:

A good overview, but the producer does not seem to have a deep understanding. Hydrogen is not an alternative form of energy production, but merely a way of using energy made by other means, since it takes energy to extract hydrogen from the molecules which contain it. Also he confuses tidal and wave power, which are quite different, even I spotted those errors and I am no expert, so how accurate it is in detail is hard to say.

Luciano Pavarotti. - Giuseppe Verdi, La Donna e’Mobile (Rigoletto) [youtu.be]

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2019:

Wonderful rendering.