Fernapple's Profile

“Once you label me you negate me”.............Soren Kierkegaard.

Word comments on Dec 20, 2020:

I like the way he ends his video with the statement: ... at the end of the day , I don't want to be any category at all. https://youtu.be/CzSMC5rWvos

Fernapple replies on Dec 20, 2020:

Nice video. PS. sorry I got grumpy with you the other day, sleepy and bothered.

I am having a hard time understanding why I have to have a certain amount of points to join a group.

LisaLisa92806 comments on Dec 19, 2020:

It's discrimination and stupid. Some of us are introverts and don't want to post and comment in order to get points.

Fernapple replies on Dec 19, 2020:

Some groups feel open to trolling, they set a certain value in points, so that only members who have proved that they are trustworthy can join. That is the main reason for the points system, it gives the site a chance to block and weed out, hackers, trolls, dealers and fakes etc. before they can do real damage. Some groups are more paranoid than others, sometimes with good reason (If they have, say, political content. ), sometimes not. But points come quickly if you take part, and taking part may only mean liking.

I have just seen "the bug" remove two successive posts remove the word c-h-i-l-d .

Fernapple comments on Dec 18, 2020:

The exact opposite happened to me yesterday, something duplicated several words in a comment I made.

Fernapple replies on Dec 18, 2020:

@Krish55 Yep, thought I had been writing song lyrics. LOL

A Problem with Sacred Texts – TRUE? GOOD? BEAUTIFUL?

Fernapple comments on Dec 18, 2020:

Part of the problem with religious texts is expressed in the. "True, Good, Beautiful ? Part of your heading. The point being that for a text to attract followers, especially when those followers have come through education systems which do not teach the strongest critical thinking, the texts need ...

Fernapple replies on Dec 18, 2020:

@Word Can you do this in English please ?

A Problem with Sacred Texts – TRUE? GOOD? BEAUTIFUL?

Fernapple comments on Dec 18, 2020:

Part of the problem with religious texts is expressed in the. "True, Good, Beautiful ? Part of your heading. The point being that for a text to attract followers, especially when those followers have come through education systems which do not teach the strongest critical thinking, the texts need ...

Fernapple replies on Dec 18, 2020:

@Word Quite. the issues of truth and beauty are quite different. Though you could actually find beauty in that one, strange as it seems. Because it could lead you to the greater truth, that we, including human females, are the results of a less than perfect design priciple called evolution by natural selection, which leaves us with many health problems. Some people may find that a 'beautiful' confirming truth.

“History is but the polemics of the victor.” - William F. Buckley Jr.

WilliamCharles comments on Dec 17, 2020:

"Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter."

Fernapple replies on Dec 18, 2020:

I like that one, it is even better than the common version.

A resurrection story for just before Christmas, enjoy because this one is real.

Wisterious comments on Dec 17, 2020:

Really enjoyed it. Thanks. Question: do you have a subscription? Am thinking about it or National Geo, but maybe digital access. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Fernapple replies on Dec 17, 2020:

No, I do not subscribe, the access on line seems to be free, and pocket gives me news of what is new.

So where was everyone before they started "living in the moment?" 🙃

Fernapple comments on Dec 17, 2020:

A lot of people are still living in Dreamland.

Fernapple replies on Dec 17, 2020:

@RoyMillar Do they even know there is a way out ?

16th December 1773.

Fernapple comments on Dec 16, 2020:

(Fun fact).Turkey went the other way. Being very vexed by the Arab domination of the coffee trade, when the Ottomans fell out with the Arab world. They took to growing their own tea, and now take a lot of national pride in their tea drinking culture. ( And it is lovely tea too.)

Fernapple replies on Dec 16, 2020:

@altschmerz Strangely not that much drunk in Turkey, though there is some.

16th December 1773.

Fernapple comments on Dec 16, 2020:

(Fun fact).Turkey went the other way. Being very vexed by the Arab domination of the coffee trade, when the Ottomans fell out with the Arab world. They took to growing their own tea, and now take a lot of national pride in their tea drinking culture. ( And it is lovely tea too.)

Fernapple replies on Dec 16, 2020:

@Marionville Very nice, it has a fruity and slightly peppery flavour, and is usually drunk black with or without sugar, but it is not as harsh when drunk black as Indian/China tea. It is made with great ritual, very hot water and really fun double teapots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7RxWSXkpRg

“Parents can only give good advice or put us on the right paths, but the final forming of a ...

yvilletom comments on Dec 16, 2020:

Did Anne, perhaps so alone, know her fate when when she wrote this? I ask because I know parents, with or without advice, put us on paths.

Fernapple replies on Dec 16, 2020:

Interesting. I am inclined towards a personal idea, based on nothing more than experience, starting with the old genetic determinism (nature) versus environment (nurture ) argument. Which goes that they are not constant but perhaps the relative values of the two change through life. Though not perhaps in the way that most peoples first reaction may lead them to think, because perhaps we only generally consider children, and that of course, nurture overcomes nature with time, but that in fact a lot of personal growth through life involves bringing out your nature (genes), and becoming comfortable with it, by out growing the suppressive effects of nurture.

Between stimulus and response there is a space.

Fernapple comments on Dec 15, 2020:

Bit obvious, or am I missing something ?

Fernapple replies on Dec 16, 2020:

@yvilletom That's OK your reply to MarionVille does the job.

Try to ignore the obvious oxymoron in the title of the article if you can 🤣🤣🤣 THE FLAT ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 15, 2020:

Sorry it says, video not available in the UK.

Fernapple replies on Dec 15, 2020:

@TheoryNumber3 Thank you, I wish I had not looked now. LOL

What if money was no object?

ChestRockfield comments on Dec 15, 2020:

Do I need to watch to take part in the thought experiment?

Fernapple replies on Dec 15, 2020:

No it is farly well summed up in FrayedBear's two lines.

Yes, there is a war between science and religion

Triphid comments on Dec 14, 2020:

That may be so in the minds of the Faithfools BUT we, the Atheists, Agnostics, etc, etc, did NOT start this imaginary 'War,' the advent of Christianity, and in some part Islam as well, started the whole thing. The Sciences, Logic, Reasoning and the like are, imo, Polar Opposites to Religions and ...

Fernapple replies on Dec 15, 2020:

I have a simple personal working definition of religion, which has always seemed to serve me well enough, and has not failed so far, which is. "Religion is the awarding of false authority." Whether it is to people in office, sky fairies, old books, tradition, false metaphor, cultural norms, linguistic conventions, or even in some cases science. To explain the last, in an extreme and unlikely case, but a real one I actually witnessed. It would be like asking a scientist, who was physicist, to give his authority on a issue of history, as I once saw a TV presenter do. Despite the fact that he confessed to having no knowledge of the subject, but in the presenters eyes, he was a scientist, right.

Yes, there is a war between science and religion

Fernapple comments on Dec 14, 2020:

Putting it simply. I will probably never have absolute truth, but if I work really hard at it, and question everything especially my assumptions, perhaps I can get nearer to it. Science. I have absolute truth given to me, because I am chosen. Religion.

Fernapple replies on Dec 14, 2020:

@bbyrd009 Perhaps, but see that would be easy. LOL

[aeon.

Fernapple comments on Dec 14, 2020:

Sorry it says, "video not availlable."

Fernapple replies on Dec 14, 2020:

@rogerbenham Will try. Thank you

Eat your vegetables. Be kind when you can. Peace.

yvilletom comments on Dec 14, 2020:

Look down as if the feet are yours. What do you see?

Fernapple replies on Dec 14, 2020:

Blurry, out of focus. I must need an eye test.

This pisses me off.

Fernapple comments on Dec 13, 2020:

It may piss you of even more to know, that in the UK, female doctors keep the name under which they gained their doctorate, and do not change it when married. But then the US is a whole other world.

Fernapple replies on Dec 14, 2020:

@Gwendolyn2018 Thank you. I learned something today.

“Education is education.

Diogenes comments on Dec 14, 2020:

But there are many types of learning- I have a bit of book-learning. But I have gotten into situations that even the 'village fool' wouldn't have touched. 'Street-smarts', in this corrupt society, may be the most important education of all. Even the moronic fool, D.J. Trump, knows how to con the ...

Fernapple replies on Dec 14, 2020:

And how not to be a sucker, is perhaps the most important real education there is.

This pisses me off.

Fernapple comments on Dec 13, 2020:

It may piss you of even more to know, that in the UK, female doctors keep the name under which they gained their doctorate, and do not change it when married. But then the US is a whole other world.

Fernapple replies on Dec 14, 2020:

@Gwendolyn2018 I am sure they do, but the point was in the UK it is considered automatic.

“They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

yvilletom comments on Dec 13, 2020:

Happily, I complied with the "no kids" part. I do sometimes wish my parents had complied.

Fernapple replies on Dec 13, 2020:

We would miss you here.

“It’s four hundred million million million million watts.

Fernapple comments on Dec 11, 2020:

Brian Cox is always fun.

Fernapple replies on Dec 13, 2020:

@Diogenes Sorry Marion and I are doing Uk talk, there is no reason why a USA person should know. Prof. B. Cox, is a popular science presenter in the UK. He manages a light touch without being silly, which is rare, and I am told that the ladies tend to like him. Here is a small sample. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIXbAuEzJN8

Morning Americans.

CuddyCruiser comments on Dec 12, 2020:

It took nearly 10 years for AIDS / HIV treatments to be developed after it was discovered. So, I’m supposed to rush to put something that was developed this fast into my system? I think I’d rather do illegal drugs.

Fernapple replies on Dec 13, 2020:

@MikeInBatonRouge Well said.

misanthropy philosophy

AnneWimsey comments on Dec 12, 2020:

I am deeply distrustful of that feel-good BS

Fernapple replies on Dec 12, 2020:

Wise. I thought that the quote is generally true, but only with the many exceptions of people who see through the trick. It seems I don't need to prove my point, because along you came.

Morning Americans.

CuddyCruiser comments on Dec 12, 2020:

It took nearly 10 years for AIDS / HIV treatments to be developed after it was discovered. So, I’m supposed to rush to put something that was developed this fast into my system? I think I’d rather do illegal drugs.

Fernapple replies on Dec 12, 2020:

Everyone has to choose what they wish to risk, and I would never tell anyone what to do. But for me given the choice between a small part of an inactive, 'dead', virus in my system and a whole 'live' one, I will take the part one every time.

Morning Americans.

linxminx comments on Dec 12, 2020:

He's a narcissist. They take credit for the good, and bear no responsibility for the bad. He may take credit if, and only if, he takes a break from the "election was stolen from me!!" diatribe he's been on since November 3. Unfortunately the Trump influence is going to be with America for awhile,...

Fernapple replies on Dec 12, 2020:

It may not have been show in the US, at least yet, but the first thing on TV new this morning in the UK was Trump making a speach taking credit for the discovery.

I may have posted this here earlier, I can't remember.

linxminx comments on Dec 12, 2020:

I would respond back, "So what does god sound like?"

Fernapple replies on Dec 12, 2020:

"He speaks English, cos' 'e wrote the Bible." King James version of course.

Who created man with such a complex structure?

nicestuff comments on Dec 10, 2020:

Evolution and the origin of life on earth may be counterintuitive. It is extremely unlikely that - at any given moment, in any given place - organic molecules floating in a primordial sea would spontaneously generate life. Yet such an event actually becomes quite likely to happen when given the ...

Fernapple replies on Dec 11, 2020:

Great answer.

Horse nose shot. Because.... He wanted to sniff the camera OK.

Word comments on Dec 10, 2020:

At least it's not the horse's ass

Fernapple replies on Dec 10, 2020:

Next week.

Who created man with such a complex structure?

273kelvin comments on Dec 10, 2020:

You say, man. but you could just as easily say pigs. cats (in fact they have a second set of eyelids which is cool) or pretty much any mammal. There are also wonderfully complex species of reptiles as well but let's concentrate on mammals for now. One clue to man's evolution is the appendix. a ...

Fernapple replies on Dec 10, 2020:

Thanks. Done it now. See above.

Who created man with such a complex structure?

273kelvin comments on Dec 10, 2020:

You say, man. but you could just as easily say pigs. cats (in fact they have a second set of eyelids which is cool) or pretty much any mammal. There are also wonderfully complex species of reptiles as well but let's concentrate on mammals for now. One clue to man's evolution is the appendix. a ...

Fernapple replies on Dec 10, 2020:

Really interesting reply. Though I think that the mouse gene which was inplanted into the fly, was only the hox gene, which switches on the eye making genes, and not the whole suite of eye genes. Which still means that the fly and the mouse, share enough in common genetically for an identical hox gene to work. You have also given me an idea though for another point which should be made.

Do you think the Pandemic will change the way we shop permanently?

Cast1es comments on Dec 10, 2020:

I find that ordering things online for home delivery , increases the costs of most delivered items . With everyone claiming being underpaid for working , and also loosing income due to the pandemic , I keep wondering how they think they can waste their income for this kind of convience ?

Fernapple replies on Dec 10, 2020:

For a lot of people, it is not just convience but safety, in this country the government asked certain parts of the population to remain in their homes, and not go out, even shopping.

Deadliest Days In American History

Fernapple comments on Dec 9, 2020:

Agree with the idea. But I have to ask, is that only in the last century, what about the civil war ? Not my history but were not some of the days of battle very deadly ?

Fernapple replies on Dec 10, 2020:

@skado Yes that say seven and a half thousand which is a lot more, but that includes those who died later.

Village portrait.

HumanistJohn comments on Dec 9, 2020:

Great composition in #1 & #9.

Fernapple replies on Dec 10, 2020:

Yes, thank you, they were intended as the art shots. Two as well to try and capture the misty damp day, but I do not think that worked as well, not so punchy, but that of course is in part the point.

Village portrait.

RoyMillar comments on Dec 9, 2020:

Love your shots ,just average everyday settings we so easily miss in our busy lives ,Thanks for posting

Fernapple replies on Dec 9, 2020:

Thank you. I try to contribute something interesting if I can.

Just for fun.

Theresa_N comments on Dec 9, 2020:

Very cute. I've been thinking about what animals might make a good companion in an assisted living center and that I wouldn't be allergic to. I'm allergic to cats, shedding dogs, pigs, horses, cows, and who knows what else.

Fernapple replies on Dec 9, 2020:

Nearest domestic animal usually available is a ferret. They are larger and really fun.

Do you have a question that you'd like to know the answer to?

Fernapple comments on Dec 8, 2020:

Yes. I would love to know if there is a lot of dark matter hidden somewhere, and where, or does the standard model need revising ?

Fernapple replies on Dec 9, 2020:

@waitingforgodo Did not think you could. But the question intrests me , mainly because I would love to know if the standard model is basically correct, or, from a human interest point of view, how and why the physics community will own the need to amend it, if that does prove to be needed. I do understand that there are many other problems with the standard model, I just picked that one as the most obvious. I do not really have any great preferences in terms of things I 'need' to know, having reached a time of life when I know that I will never know everything, and that there is often just as much joy in finding a answer to a trivial problem as one of lifes great puzzles.

This is a worthwhile read even if you knew something about it.

Mcflewster comments on Dec 7, 2020:

I believe that it was a particular Caliph who turned Islam against science and probably mathematics.

Fernapple replies on Dec 7, 2020:

That idea was promoted by a number of people it is true, especially famously by Neil Degrasse Tyson. But as many have pointed out, it is really a bit over simplified, it really took quite a long time. What happened was the usual cycle of decline, when the golden age faded, as all things do in the end, and things got bad. Everyone started to look for someone to blame, and that played into the hands of the evangelical fundamentalists who were good at spreading blame. They insisted on less tolerance, that in turn of course made things worse, which in turn made people turn even more to the fundamentalists, who gained more power, becoming more intolerant, making things worse yet, so people gave them more trust and power etc.etc. Sound like anywhere you know ?

Just because a person is agnostic doesn't mean that they have to believe in evolution and the same ...

MakeItGood comments on Dec 6, 2020:

You mean the theory that was proven three different ways not only through observations by Darwin of modern creatures, but through paleontology, and through genetic analysis? The theory that also has been proven through documented animal and plant farming of us breeding dogs vows chickens goats ...

Fernapple replies on Dec 6, 2020:

@Mcflewster No point just back up Makeitgood, for fun, (slight irony. )

Just because a person is agnostic doesn't mean that they have to believe in evolution and the same ...

MakeItGood comments on Dec 6, 2020:

You mean the theory that was proven three different ways not only through observations by Darwin of modern creatures, but through paleontology, and through genetic analysis? The theory that also has been proven through documented animal and plant farming of us breeding dogs vows chickens goats ...

Fernapple replies on Dec 6, 2020:

Don't forget, morphology changes over continental climate zones, comparative anatomy, (important before genetics ) embryology, ring species, and observed modern adaptions, including things like antibiotic resistence in disease organisms. Not being pedantic, just throwing more fuel on your fire.

Is being agnostic more positively correlated with intelligence than being theistic?

snytiger6 comments on Dec 5, 2020:

I've posted several studies on this site about how that correlation is true.

Fernapple replies on Dec 6, 2020:

I have read some of those posts. To a degree, I think that, as we learn more from such things, then judging by the replies this time, the usual tsunami of modesty, which used to always greet this question when it was asked is fading.

Is being agnostic more positively correlated with intelligence than being theistic?

TheMiddleWay comments on Dec 5, 2020:

On the whole, the answer is "no". Evidence for this is the preponderance of science nobel science prizes that have gone to theist as well as the majority of medical doctors and scientists worldwide that are theists. But to best answer that question, one needs to properly define terms, ...

Fernapple replies on Dec 5, 2020:

@Canndue Certainly counting Nobel prizes is a very bad way to measure it, but I think that Middleway is being tongue in cheek there. Though I remember the flak a well known atheist got when he used that measure to compare Jews with Mohammedans. LOL

Almost All COVID Transmission Is Happening in These 5 Places, Doctor Says

Julie808 comments on Dec 3, 2020:

My weakness is my friendly neighborhood open air restaurant, where my safe social circle and I bring our own beverages, listen to live music and dance under the stars. Have always felt safe there when we had zero cases on the island, but 6 weeks ago we opened up to visitors, and our cases shot up ...

Fernapple replies on Dec 4, 2020:

The one small point is, that outside should be safer than a typical indoor restaurant.

Making a life, and a walk with Rose.

Wangobango3 comments on Dec 3, 2020:

Why is this on my home page and why can't I delete it?

Fernapple replies on Dec 4, 2020:

No idea, strange things happen on this site, sometimes. Do you mean your home page, aor the Agnostic front page ?

Some thing you don't think of as a climber, but animals alway throw out something new.

Wisterious comments on Dec 3, 2020:

That was cool. Agile.

Fernapple replies on Dec 4, 2020:

@Wisterious I wonder where it thought it was going, and if it had a plan.

Hi - I'm not sure what to do about something.

273kelvin comments on Dec 3, 2020:

If you think that is bad? Try writing a little satirical humour. A couple of years back I wrote about women who sit on their boyfriend's shoulders at festivals. The gist being, that if you're gonna block everyones view then at least take your top off. Like I said it was an attempt at humour but so ...

Fernapple replies on Dec 3, 2020:

You should know the first rule of Agnosics, is. Don't try humour. And the second rule is. Especially not irony.

I was trying to figure out who actually wrote the books of the bible and everyone thinks its these ...

DenoPenno comments on Dec 2, 2020:

In our time today there is very little of anything left to actually hint at original authorship. We have pieces and fragments and everything is a copy of a copy of a copy. You cannot tell the religious this however. They think the gospels were written by those who's names are on them. They ask why ...

Fernapple replies on Dec 3, 2020:

Its interesting to note, that the bible passages we know the most about the origins of, are the forgeries, such as the many parts added, including Maths account of the resurection, the eleventh commandment, and the last verses of Song Of Solomon, which were added by the King James editors. (King James being the fundamentalists favourite of course, as well as the most inaccurate.)

Virtually every agnostic lives like an atheist, living completely irreligious lives Dennis ...

David1955 comments on Dec 2, 2020:

I can't agree. One thing i have learnt in recent years is that the term agnostic covers a very wide group of people, from some who state their agnosticism well and are on a similar irreligious plane as atheists, to those agnostics who hang on to a lot of religious folly and pseudo religion but no ...

Fernapple replies on Dec 2, 2020:

@JeffMurray Yes but David has been around a bit, you have to assume he has already been there many times.

A slightly old "Good Morning Britain" pre US election segment with John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten of ...

LenHazell53 comments on Dec 2, 2020:

Yeah Johnny Rotten is work class. He's been filthy rich since the 1970s, and only a few years ago copped out and started advertising butter on ITV TV in a hypocritical display of two facedness of the Punk ethic he practically figured headed. What a fucking dildo.

Fernapple replies on Dec 2, 2020:

@LenHazell53 Perhaps I was misinformed, thank you.

A slightly old "Good Morning Britain" pre US election segment with John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten of ...

LenHazell53 comments on Dec 2, 2020:

Yeah Johnny Rotten is work class. He's been filthy rich since the 1970s, and only a few years ago copped out and started advertising butter on ITV TV in a hypocritical display of two facedness of the Punk ethic he practically figured headed. What a fucking dildo.

Fernapple replies on Dec 2, 2020:

He was also born into a privilaged middle class family.

Virtually every agnostic lives like an atheist, living completely irreligious lives Dennis ...

David1955 comments on Dec 2, 2020:

I can't agree. One thing i have learnt in recent years is that the term agnostic covers a very wide group of people, from some who state their agnosticism well and are on a similar irreligious plane as atheists, to those agnostics who hang on to a lot of religious folly and pseudo religion but no ...

Fernapple replies on Dec 2, 2020:

@JeffMurray Depends, the two types of atheist are usually called, soft and hard atheists. Though soft atheists could also be defined as being on the agnostic spectrum.

Favorite philosopher?

Word comments on Dec 1, 2020:

Me

Fernapple replies on Dec 1, 2020:

We know.

What’s round and nasty? A vicious circle.

Fernapple comments on Dec 1, 2020:

Groan. Not you too, it was bad enough when the Americans did it, but it seems its catching and the Atlantic is no barrier.

Fernapple replies on Dec 1, 2020:

@girlwithsmiles Oh dear. Yes I think I shall go to bed now.

What’s round and nasty? A vicious circle.

Fernapple comments on Dec 1, 2020:

Groan. Not you too, it was bad enough when the Americans did it, but it seems its catching and the Atlantic is no barrier.

Fernapple replies on Dec 1, 2020:

@girlwithsmiles OK, so you are forgiven. But what is brown and sticky ?

I mentioned the verse that says it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than ...

Organist1 comments on Nov 30, 2020:

A Presbyterian minister once told me it was the name of a small alleyway or city gate in Jerusalem, which would be difficult for a camel to pass through. At least, that was what he was taught in divinity school.

Fernapple replies on Dec 1, 2020:

Still means the same thing though.

I mentioned the verse that says it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than ...

resserts comments on Nov 30, 2020:

I was told by a fundamentalist Christian that the passage actually refers to a "Needle Gate" that was very difficult for a camel to pass through. The problem with this explanation is that a) the Bible passage doesn't say that, b) it would require that people from outside a very particular locale ...

Fernapple replies on Dec 1, 2020:

Yes it does not matter if the eye of the needle was a gate, or the camel a rope. The whole point of the story, for once in the bible, is quite plain. One of the people who wrote the Jesus story, was simply well to the left of Marx, and its lovely to watch the entitlement christians try to squirm their way round that.

December 4th is Saint Barbara's Day.

Cast1es comments on Nov 30, 2020:

My neighbor came over one day to ask me why my forsythias bloomed every spring , but theirs never did . I pointed out to her that I pruned mine in the fall . Her man pruned theirs in the spring and was , therefore , pruning off all the buds .

Fernapple replies on Nov 30, 2020:

The best rule of thumb for all flowering shrubs, to ensure you get flowers the following year is. 'Prune immediately after flowering.'

I’m an atheist, but I can’t wait to get back to church

Fernapple comments on Nov 29, 2020:

I don't think that the article is really pro-religion, she no where says that she is giving up atheism. It is only really in praise of medieval architecture.

Fernapple replies on Nov 30, 2020:

@Triphid Yes that is very true, and generally I see them as monuments to exploitation. The church after all demanded a tithe, one tenth of everything from everyone, and of course it was as always the poorest who had the least opportunities to avoid paying. Then it accepted and demanded gifts on top of that, plus its own property and rents, and its own merchant activities. It was a huge drain on the resources of the time. Just imagine what could have been done with all that wealth, had it been spent on canals, roads, better housing for the poor, harbours, sewers, irrigation and dams, all of which were known and technically possible at the time. ( They did spend a little on hospitals. Putting on a show. ) The catholic church may be a charitable institution, when it has to be, or when it gains credit from doing so, but perhaps no institution has done more to create poverty in the first place. Though I do not think, as I have been informed, that it is true that, poor peasants, were forced to actually work on building the cathedrals. Most of the work was done by skilled masons, and builders, who were actually part of the church establishment, and usually very highly paid, by the standards of the day. So much so, that membership of the trade guilds, was very carefully controlled and only members of the builders and masons guilds, which were themselves powerful and wealthy, could work on the sites. I have heard that, even unskilled labour on the cathedrals earned one shilling and six pence, increasing with their rank and skill level, which was an undreamed of wage then, a hundred times the earning of a peasant. Cathedral building was the 'oil boom', industry of the day. So much so that there was vast and aggressive competition for the church jobs, and in part it was no doubt the ambition of the powerful and influential masons, within the church establishment, which drove the church building programs. Health and safety was however as you say quite unknown. And a lot of lives were lost during the building. Indeed it is not unknown for even master masons to die, in falls from, or the collapsing of scaffolding etc. But then no doubt, the church said that, if you died helping to build the church, then you gained a great blessing (sic).

Always wondered.

Fernapple comments on Nov 29, 2020:

It is a mistake to associate the idea of God with any particular qualities. Some gods, such as the Abrahamic god may well be associated in our culture with certain qualities, such as jealousy, but the issue of gods, is a philosophic one, is outside of any individual culture. There is nothing ...

Fernapple replies on Nov 29, 2020:

@Joanne My view exactly. I think little of the view that the universe, needs or is in any way intelligent. But at the same time I am tolerant of a wide range of opinion even deism, because I have no time for dogma.

Is it ok to affirm someone's untrue beliefs?

Fernapple comments on Nov 29, 2020:

Mostly in the UK it is only the very old who cling to such beliefs, you get used to finding ways of evading such questions, because it is hard to burn an old persons walking stick. But generally they know you don't agree anyway, and avoid it themselves, evangelizing has never really been socially ...

Fernapple replies on Nov 29, 2020:

@FrayedBear Yes Johnson is, but that is what makes him a laughing stock.

Is it ok to affirm someone's untrue beliefs?

Fernapple comments on Nov 29, 2020:

Mostly in the UK it is only the very old who cling to such beliefs, you get used to finding ways of evading such questions, because it is hard to burn an old persons walking stick. But generally they know you don't agree anyway, and avoid it themselves, evangelizing has never really been socially ...

Fernapple replies on Nov 29, 2020:

@FrayedBear Yes but politicians are no very popular here, and even they have to tone down the evangelizing. If a British politician came up with something like MAGA, they would be a laughing stock, even among their own party.

What number are you today?

Fernapple comments on Nov 29, 2020:

5

Fernapple replies on Nov 29, 2020:

@MsHoliday I was thinking more, really grumpy. But tomorrow is another day.

It is not for all men actively to practice a science and advance it.

yvilletom comments on Nov 28, 2020:

Donald Culross Peattie (June 21, 1898 – November 16, 1964) American botanist, naturalist and author. Joseph Wood Krutch described him as "perhaps the most widely read of all contemporary American nature writers" during his heyday. Source: Google search.

Fernapple replies on Nov 29, 2020:

I find that his works, especially 'Flowering Earth' from which this is taken, read wonderfully well, and are great favourites, especially because of the charmingly old fashioned writing style. Though of course the science is completely out of date, but if you allow for that, then well worth a read.

Posted this in Natural History as well, but it goes well here too.

Lorajay comments on Nov 28, 2020:

Page not found

Fernapple replies on Nov 28, 2020:

Think that fixed it.

Posted this in Natural History as well, but it goes well here too.

Lorajay comments on Nov 28, 2020:

Page not found

Fernapple replies on Nov 28, 2020:

Sorry will try again.

Imagine if people knocked on your door to talk about science...

Happycanuck comments on Nov 28, 2020:

Yeah. Science,sex,good whiskey, good craft beer, good sex,sex.

Fernapple replies on Nov 28, 2020:

WHAT ALL AT ONCE !!!

It is not for all men actively to practice a science and advance it.

AnonySchmoose comments on Nov 28, 2020:

Those suspicious of real science tend to be backward.

Fernapple replies on Nov 28, 2020:

Yes though I do not know which are the most sad, those who willfully wish to face backwards, or those who have never been shown the way forwards, due to contaminated or failed education.

The Koprulu Canyon, (Kanyon) in Turkey.

Gmak comments on Nov 28, 2020:

https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/sahalie-falls-to-blue-pool--2 There’s a place in Oregon where I used to like to hike that was blue like this. I’ve included a link with photos so you can see. I believe the water is blue not because of its purity, but rather it’s because the river...

Fernapple replies on Nov 28, 2020:

Yes. Thank you I will look into that. Though of course a lot of the colour is just the reflection of the sky, which I had assumed , was less affected by greening when the water contains no alga or mud.

When he leaves office, can ex-President Trump be trusted with America's national security secrets?

AnneWimsey comments on Nov 27, 2020:

Pray tell, when, exactly, could he be trusted with them?

Fernapple replies on Nov 28, 2020:

Yes, but when he leaves , they will be the only thing he has left to bargin with.

Although getting quite rare in many parts of the UK, hares are still fairly common near me, and in ...

MikeInBatonRouge comments on Nov 27, 2020:

Wow! Someone is aspiring to be a 🦘.

Fernapple replies on Nov 28, 2020:

Very similar in many way, they fill much the same ecological role.

What is knowledge?

Fernapple comments on Nov 27, 2020:

Does light, 'know' that it has to bend to just such a degree, when pacing through a dense or less dense medium, as when going through a lens, to achieve optimal speed ?

Fernapple replies on Nov 28, 2020:

@Word It is said that, green light is the wave length within the usable range, which has the least energy, and therefore is of the least use to the plant. So they don't bother going to the expence of making pigments to capture it. Some plants do however use different pigments, especially reflecting purple, but they are rare and usually live in low light environments where only blue green light remains. The rest having been filtered out by other plants and deep water etc.. Some people say that the earliest photosynthesising plants were purple, because the colour of sunlight was different on the early earth.

What is knowledge?

Fernapple comments on Nov 27, 2020:

Does light, 'know' that it has to bend to just such a degree, when pacing through a dense or less dense medium, as when going through a lens, to achieve optimal speed ?

Fernapple replies on Nov 27, 2020:

@Word No. There is I think a separation there. Colour is not a truly real thing, but only a code which our brains use to represent, wave length, which in itself is only a hypothetical property of light, awarded to it by science because the true properties of it are only understood in metaphorical form. So you have two metaphorical codes for a property of light , one by our hard wired instinctive brains, and one by our rational science brains. Niether of which tells us what light is only what it does.

FIFTY WAYS TO LEAVE THE WHITE HOUSE - a Parody | Don Caron - YouTube

Fernapple comments on Nov 25, 2020:

Nice song, horrible wig.

Fernapple replies on Nov 26, 2020:

@Freedompath Where is that nausia emoji.

holidays and other shit

Fernapple comments on Nov 25, 2020:

I love the last one. Imagine trying to explain in the garage that. "My car was hit by a flying toilet."

Fernapple replies on Nov 26, 2020:

@whiskywoman No I would not. Not that big a danger to me. But then I do find, that if you leave a safe distance between you and the next vehicle, then someone, (usually in exactly that sort of truck), overtakes you and fills the gap.

(This space NOT intentionally left blank).

Fernapple comments on Nov 25, 2020:

OK, so here is a photocopy of some notes in my notebook, that I am going to write next week.

Fernapple replies on Nov 25, 2020:

@Word Yes I got one of those too somewhere. Trouble is I put it in with some blank sheets of paper, and now I can't find it.

It has been a mild Autumn, just turned cold now.

Heidi68 comments on Nov 24, 2020:

favorite.! I have some winter Jasmine - it is not real happy in its current location so I think I will move it - hopefully I won't kill it...

Fernapple replies on Nov 24, 2020:

Mine does very nicely here in the UK on a south wall.

It has been a mild Autumn, just turned cold now.

Cast1es comments on Nov 24, 2020:

Are these all in your garden ? Very colorful for winter .

Fernapple replies on Nov 24, 2020:

Yes all within ten yards, except the Pyracantha, which is in the next village.

It has been a mild Autumn, just turned cold now.

Spinliesel comments on Nov 24, 2020:

Those bushes and flowers look lovely and make me happy to look at. Here, by Lake Ontario, all is in winter sleep mode already. I tried growing Mahonia one year, but the conditions are too harsh.

Fernapple replies on Nov 24, 2020:

Yes, that is tough, some Mahonias are hardier than others, but sadly only the dull ones are really tough. This one was cut down to the ground, even here in the UK, in 2010/2011 when we had a very, for us, cold winter.

11/22/2020 The Year of Five Emperors or whatever one wants to call 2020 continues.

Fernapple comments on Nov 23, 2020:

Wonder how much they have to pay that golf club ?

Fernapple replies on Nov 23, 2020:

@Druvius Yuk.

What would you define the word agnostic to be?

creative51 comments on Nov 22, 2020:

Been posted once, do not reply to this duplicate post.

Fernapple replies on Nov 23, 2020:

@AmyTheBruce Or both, the two are not mutually exclusive. Just look at the POTUS. LOL

I am in a small, local discussion group (mostly family) and, if I might, I would like to share your...

Fernapple comments on Nov 14, 2020:

I would go with both three and four. You can also ask the reverse question. Is nothing possible ?

Fernapple replies on Nov 22, 2020:

@Wallace Yes, except that of course. There is a big gulf, massive and almost impossible to cross, between a, something existing, and a thinking planning god, and then a second one between a thinking god and a creating one.

A good overview perhaps of anti-science/reason and its basic methods. [scientificamerican.]

Mooolah comments on Nov 22, 2020:

Denialists do not read Scientific American. Denialists often receive their history from movies. Many did not vote.....until President Ray Gun. I recall an incident when a conspiracy doc appeared for $14.99 on television. A co worker had it & distributed it "confirming" the Clinton's were operating ...

Fernapple replies on Nov 22, 2020:

The whole point of science of course is that everything is open to questioning, a lot of questioning takes place, and there is alway debate. Which is a great way to approach finding truth, and the wisdom to know the limits of your knowledge. But it is more or less the best way to leave yourself completely defenceless in the face of absolutists and fundamentalists.

The times in which we felt the most intensely alive, even if those times were stressful, are the ...

barjoe comments on Nov 22, 2020:

We should look back so fondly on this pandemic. If we survive it.

Fernapple replies on Nov 22, 2020:

I will pass on that one thank you. In Berlin in 59 everyone was pulling together to make it work, in the present pandemic...........

A good overview perhaps of anti-science/reason and its basic methods. [scientificamerican.]

barjoe comments on Nov 21, 2020:

Shocking with what this planet has been though with this pandemic, that people are against taking this vaccine. Right now in the USA, even though we have insufficient testing, yesterday reported over 200K new cases with 2K deaths.

Fernapple replies on Nov 21, 2020:

@barjoe I would have put myself forward for the trials. Nothing to fear, the stats on drug/vaccine trials are very clear, the risks are tiny, and anyway I am a single male no children so expendable anyway, the perfect subject.

A good overview perhaps of anti-science/reason and its basic methods. [scientificamerican.]

barjoe comments on Nov 21, 2020:

Shocking with what this planet has been though with this pandemic, that people are against taking this vaccine. Right now in the USA, even though we have insufficient testing, yesterday reported over 200K new cases with 2K deaths.

Fernapple replies on Nov 21, 2020:

You have to ask what is the prime killer, virus or stupid.

Animal psychologists have been trying to determine if animals are self aware for quite some time.

Fernapple comments on Nov 20, 2020:

To a degree that is true perhaps. But what is curiosity, if not asking questions, none verbally perhaps but still asking questions of the environment ?

Fernapple replies on Nov 21, 2020:

@EdEarl Yes but that is very unlikely within a clade, since that would involve regressive evolution or successful macromutations.

Some days are just outstanding in history: today is one of those days.

Fernapple comments on Nov 20, 2020:

I think that most, if not all of them, survived, by taking to the boats, but it was a long hard voyage in the boats.