This is the Orchid Rock Rose.

Fernapple comments on Apr 23, 2021:

The flowers last several days for me, here in England, so it must be a climate thing.

There was a video that was removed soon before a lot had seen it.

Fernapple comments on Apr 22, 2021:

Pity the video was not downloaded and stored.

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Albert Einstein

Fernapple comments on Apr 22, 2021:

Most of the time it does not.

Just got no. 2. arm hasn't fallen off yet.

Fernapple comments on Apr 21, 2021:

Three weeks yet for me. But I am told your arm does not drop off, you grow a third one.

Unionized...

Fernapple comments on Apr 21, 2021:

It would not work in the UK we are de-ionized.

LOL.

Fernapple comments on Apr 21, 2021:

Wire wool used to be made in the past, by those who sent incomprehensible telegrams.

If god were real, the god of the bible's death toll would be 3 to 20 million people and quite a few ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 21, 2021:

Small qualification. The plagues of Egypt, god sent a satan, (there may be more than one ) to do the job for him. So they both did it.

i love it when you smile

Fernapple comments on Apr 21, 2021:

Hello and welcome, enjoy the site, and do look into the groups, there is something for everyone.

Saving the world one corndog at a time.

Fernapple comments on Apr 21, 2021:

World wide the commonest street/house number to include a letter is 12a. Wonder why?

More kamasutra please!

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2021:

I am told that only two percent of the Kamasutra is about sex. It has more pages on gardening. Must read it sometime, ( Just for the gardening of course.)

Another one bites the dust.

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2021:

It has been a good year for Darwin Award candidates. Vintage in fact.

If the god of the bible exists (which I don't believe for a moment) it is a complete asshole.

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2021:

Yes I lost both my parents and my wife, and all of them slowly. Selfishly speaking it seems sometimes that all life is spent either watching people die, or grieving afterwards. And worse of course is the fact that even if that god has gone away, the legacy of regarding human life as untouchable, will still go on to deny humans the final mercy we give to animals, for years to come. The only thing that I can recommend to help your own pain, is work, it really does help to keep busy and thereby forget your pains, even though work can seem pointless, grey and dull, it still stops you overthinking.

This definitely gave me a feel good boost because I am mediocre at almost everything but I've ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2021:

Wonderful philosophy, my thought exactly. Though some people say, butterfly personality.

Two totally different things...

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2021:

Sadly nuance tends to be wasted on people like creationists, they want absolutes of good and evil true and false, with them in the good and everyone else in the evil false camp. And if the nuance does not help give them that, then too bad for the nuance. Your sentence contains eleven words, that is far too many to scream in one breath. "You believe in evolution. " Is only four words, which is much easier to scream if you don't want anyone else to be heard.

Ockham’s razor, Russell’s teapot, and the lottery paradox.

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2021:

Actually they are not only misusing Russell's teapot. Which supports agnostic philosophy. But also Ockham's Razor, which was an ancient rule for use in formal debating, and never said anything like its common modern misuser's think it did.

(Forewarning: This idea would only be good IF no one cared about the patterns of darkness and light.

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2021:

Yes but the problem is more basic than that. The real problem is that there are not an exact number of days, the time it takes the earth to rotate, in a year. So that if you make the seconds line up with the days, they will not line up with the year, and if you do make the seconds line up with the year, then there will not be an exact number of seconds in a day. And then there is the noise and the slowing of the earth. It is not a solvable problem. PS. there is a small error at the beginning, the hours are not "the earth spinning while the sun shines on it," that is the days, of which the hours are sub-divisions. For another improvement which works very well. Why not have thirteen months of twenty eight days. That makes three hundred and sixty four days, and you then add one extra day, called new years day or leap day, at the beginning of the year, every year, except leap years when you have two, to adjust the years and days as needed. New years day/days are a holiday and are not counted as weekdays. (They are just called new years day.) Then every year and every month would begin on the same day of the week, and nobody would ever need to buy more than one calendar in a lifetime.

I'm still fairly new Atheist and still figuring out my way as one.

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2021:

Encourage them to learn some history, and how it works, for example recommend a secular history of the biblical lands. Does not have to be a book if they don't read, a Youtube documentary is a good start. There is nothing destroys religion like knowledge.

Suspected poacher trampled to death by elephants.

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2021:

Sadly though, the actual poachers are often poor and desperate creatures themselves, who are bullied into it, often because they owe debts to the gangs, armed cheaply by the poaching gangs, and are only paid a pittance for the ivory. The gang members and organized criminals who control the trade, never get involved in the actual hunting themselves.

Can i get an amen to that

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2021:

Where did you find that one ? Even the J.W.'s are not that bad.

I know everyone on this site has probably seen this, but it is always funny. [m.youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2021:

The Buy -Babble contains a good joke of its own, if you look. Because according to it, on the mount he was given the stone tablets magical inscribed by the lord with the laws. Accompanied only by his bother in law, Aaron. Who the Buy-Babble tells us was a STONE MASON. Just saying.

We are witnessing unbelievable process in Georgia right now.

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2021:

The worlds churches will probably not die, if you have a useful name and some cultural value someone will always take it on. In all probability the worlds churches will reinvent themselves again, as they often have, probably this time as organized crime.

Hail satan lol!

Fernapple comments on Apr 19, 2021:

He also tortured Job in just about every way they could think of, just to amuse Satan. You have got to know that when it come to the crunch, its one law for supernaturals, and another one entirely for poor humans.

Only a 10-min.

Fernapple comments on Apr 18, 2021:

I know what you mean. Though I am more of a woodland than coastal person, for my green fix..

I got my second covid shot today.

Fernapple comments on Apr 18, 2021:

Cheer up, it only lasts a day or two, then you can get back to being abnormal again.

Bill nails it again...78% of COVID mortalities were those suffering from obesity. [youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on Apr 18, 2021:

Sorry, link does not go there.

Don't think they wore masks, but the beards may have helped...

Fernapple comments on Apr 18, 2021:

Did they not see the episode of the Flintstones, where Fred got them all to hide down the mine ?

Photos of the week: [washingtonpost.com]

Fernapple comments on Apr 17, 2021:

Paywall, sorry.

Share your top Secrets for success in life Tall order, here goes mine.

Fernapple comments on Apr 17, 2021:

If I shared it, it would not be a secret any longer.

I'm an expert when it comes to other people's lives.

Fernapple comments on Apr 17, 2021:

Think about, "Te Deum" and the English word "tedium", which came out at about the time of the Reformation.

“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats”.

Fernapple comments on Apr 17, 2021:

Beer, laughter, hugs, sunshine, green growing things, books, giving unasked, honest trade (happy customers), hot showers, old dogs, wind waving grass, young creatures of all species, etc. etc.

The Epicurus Dilemma.

Fernapple comments on Apr 16, 2021:

I think that the last one is the weak one, since we do not know what the qualifications for godhood are, who is to say that willingness and ability are needed. But it works fairly well.

You cannot stop faith - pandemic or not.

Fernapple comments on Apr 16, 2021:

And India's right wing government coming up to an election, does not want to upset the religious right, by placing restrictions, of any sort, on them. So a lot more people are going to die of religion, and a secondary political infection, with viral complications of course.

People Are Revealing Why They'll Never Go To Church Again, And I'm Curious About Who Feels The Same...

Fernapple comments on Apr 16, 2021:

How about. All of the above.

Someone mentioned how beautiful this garden was and I looked it up.

Fernapple comments on Apr 15, 2021:

If you like that, you may also like this English garden, its in a different style, and much older, but was originally the creation of a mother and son. https://perennial.org.uk/garden/york-gate-garden/

Can evil be good, or good be evil?

Fernapple comments on Apr 15, 2021:

Good and evil are absolutes. And like the vast majority of absolutes, they do not exist, ( Or at least not absolutely. This being a nuance.) when people talk about an absolute, they are saying. "I do not accept nuance or qualification in this mater." But accepting nuance and qualification are the roots of wisdom, since it is only when we let them in, that we can begin to learn, move forward, or see the other view.

In education, in marriage, in religion, in everything, disappointment is the lot of women.

Fernapple comments on Apr 15, 2021:

Tough love, I suppose.

I'm not sure I want my butt to light up...

Fernapple comments on Apr 15, 2021:

Sounds painful.

The neighbor lady upstairs made me some cabbage, pork rolls.

Fernapple comments on Apr 15, 2021:

I should ask her if you can start with a cheese sandwich first. Best not get in too deep too quick. LOL

Loved this picture!

Fernapple comments on Apr 14, 2021:

Bed in breakfast.

Talk about Good Old Aussie Shits and Giggles, I wish my Scanner/Printer wasn't Cactus Stuffedus ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 14, 2021:

You can photograph a paper with a regular camera or mobile if you need to.

“As study after study has taught us, there is no tool for development more effective than the ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 14, 2021:

Sadly there are many who are opposed not only to the, empowerment of women, but to development as well. Oppression works with perfect logic from their standpoint.

America's nothing more than the petri dish on which this world grows its imbeciles.

Fernapple comments on Apr 14, 2021:

No your I am sorry to say that I think they are entirely home grown, please don't try to blame the rest of the world.

Something to ponder.

Fernapple comments on Apr 14, 2021:

Well, it requires a lot of qualifications and nuances to be added, but not a bad starting point. Certainly for the life of an individual, living in moderately stable nation states, it makes every sense as a source of happiness. But Aristotle of course, for example, could never have foreseen that humans might one day, have the power to destroy the living world with our waste, or weapons of mass destruction for use on other people. So that one day, we would have in our hands, the power to do things so horrible, that no opposition to the doing of them could be termed immoderate.

Trump says COVID-19 vaccine should be called Trumpcine [independent.co.uk]

Fernapple comments on Apr 13, 2021:

Is this still April the first. Or has he gone way beyond, "lost it completely" ?

One secular vision of how things work

Fernapple comments on Apr 13, 2021:

I can go along with that. Though I am enough of a natural sceptic and agnostic to say that I would not be certain of any of it, and If someone produced a disproof of any part of it, it would not disturb me much.

So! today April 13th.

Fernapple comments on Apr 13, 2021:

Don't feel too bad, there are not many in Christian lands, who give much up for Lent either.

Why do people still say "Rest in Peace"?

Fernapple comments on Apr 13, 2021:

Because they don't want you to come back and annoy them again.

Something to keep cosmology fans out of mischief for a while.

Fernapple comments on Apr 13, 2021:

No, not quite. I think that most of what the author says about the failings of modern culture, the arts and the rise of relativism is very true, and the article is well worth reading for that alone. But I think that it is a little narrow and limited a view, to pin it all on Albert and cosmology. From the same period, what about Freud for example. Long the poster boy of pseudo science, and accepted as such even by mainstream thinking. Since he really did give the best demonstration of, faking it by plagiarizing, inventing empty jargon to create self revering text to cover the absence of any real content, and ignoring conflicting evidence, (Especially from other fields, such as real Biology.) The Freudian pseudoscience movement, especially in all the "soft" social sciences and humanities, really did spread its dismal shadow deeply across all the worlds educational institutions. And since those pseudo-sciences are much more immediately connected to mainstream culture, than cosmology, I think that their effects are greater.

I've been watching movies about EVEREST.

Fernapple comments on Apr 13, 2021:

I am uneasy about a lot of the stunts that Westerners from highly developed countries, go to the (third) underdeveloped world to indulge in. Because they are basically flaunting the fact that they come from cultures wealthy enough to afford health and life insurance, good hospitals and often high quality state health care, plus reasonable levels of social security. So that they do not have to worry about the effects, especially financial, that injury or death may have on them or their families. This is surely insultingly insensitive towards people, for whom, even a couple of days off with a broken leg, could mean great hardship and even real hunger for their families. While the certainly help to provide money and jobs in the tourist industries, you have to wonder if even more help could not be provided, by responsible tourism, devoted to revering the cultures and natural history of the lands visited.

New Christ statue in Brazil's Encantado to be taller than Rio's [bbc.com]

Fernapple comments on Apr 12, 2021:

Well, ours is bigger than your. Yah!

Sidney Powell's claim that 'no reasonable person' would believe her comes back to bite her

Fernapple comments on Apr 12, 2021:

So maybe these political spin doctors do have to face the consequences of their actions sometimes. We will wait and see.

This is inspirational. [amp.theguardian.com]

Fernapple comments on Apr 12, 2021:

Sad. Why do these sporting authorities always seem to sell out so cheaply for a few bits of Saudi silver ?

"Losing My Religion" or "What in the Mental Health is Going On? - YouTube

Fernapple comments on Apr 12, 2021:

Sorry. Video does not work.

I'm certain this is not the first time a human has noticed this, especially during the era before TV...

Fernapple comments on Apr 12, 2021:

Would not work in the U K since we write the dates differently, day, month, year, from the small unit to the largest. It always seemed strange that America jumps around.

Have you ever noticed how Spring even makes a rainy day look good?

Fernapple comments on Apr 12, 2021:

I envy you. Here in the UK we are starting to suffer a drought, and yet have had more frosts this last week than all winter, a truly horrible spring, bring on summer.

Last last night I got a piece of sausage stuck in my airway.

Fernapple comments on Apr 12, 2021:

I am sure it was unpleasant, but you have to be thankful, people have died of that, and think of the sniggers at your funeral.

Lyrics: I never really understood religion Except it seems a good excuse to kill I never really ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 12, 2021:

How about. I can't relate to any power, That sets the ego to devour

Oh for when we can travel again, you don't have to go far, other peoples gardens are good enough, ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 11, 2021:

Sorry all, I will try again another day, and try to find some videos that are available in the US.

So I just watched the commercial where they're trying to convert people and you had to say a prayer ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 11, 2021:

It is the logic of the Nazis. If you wish to use, exploit, and abuse people. Then you must first find a way to convince everybody that some people are less than perfect and subhuman, and therefore deserving of abuse, and not of defense. The Nazis directed that idea at Jews, Romany, Blacks and the disabled etc. But they were late comers to the show, and missed the trick played by the Churches, who managed to direct that logic at the whole human race. Remember the motto above the gate where slaves went in was. "Work makes you free." And slaving for the churches, makes you free from guilt and the threats of hell.

Pleased to report no side effects from my second Pfizer Covid vaccine dose.

Fernapple comments on Apr 11, 2021:

In the UK you would be though of as impolite if you did not wear one anyway.

If you go far enough into religion, you will find science.

Fernapple comments on Apr 11, 2021:

Relativist bullshit. If that was true, then why was science ever invented in the first place ?

And in a vacuum, so I can't hear you.

Fernapple comments on Apr 11, 2021:

Wonderful.

Did you witness this historic event?

Fernapple comments on Apr 10, 2021:

Yes I can just remember it. Yuri was a global hero, in a way which transcended politics. So sad that he died so young.

Georgia v. Democracy | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) [youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on Apr 10, 2021:

It would perhaps be more interesting if there was some explanation as to what Georgia are doing. Not everyone on this site is familiar with the fine details of US politics.

No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness. --Aiistotle

Fernapple comments on Apr 9, 2021:

And very few were without an 'R' in their name. LOL

Beware the beauty of the Blue Viper.

Fernapple comments on Apr 9, 2021:

Certainly is colourful, like many toxic things of course.

Afterlife

Fernapple comments on Apr 9, 2021:

A lot happens when you die, it is just you are not a part of it anymore. But you can comfort yourself with the thought that some animals will get a good meal, and you will not have to take the lives of any more animals and plants to keep your living going.

Pretty much. 😅

Fernapple comments on Apr 9, 2021:

There are worse things to be. And I always thought car rides were fun.

“We realise the importance of our voices only when we are silenced”..........Malala Yousafzai.

Fernapple comments on Apr 9, 2021:

Sad, but maybe true.

Hi everyone! It's been a long time since I became active here. How are you my fellows?🖤🧠

Fernapple comments on Apr 9, 2021:

Hello, we are much the same thank you, but even older. Welcome back, hope you are well.

Believers must be getting more desperate.

Fernapple comments on Apr 9, 2021:

Start talking like a perv., is best yes, they hang up quickly. LOL

I have an EpiPen.

Fernapple comments on Apr 8, 2021:

If it took away some of his pain, maybe he was giving you something that had been very important to him.

Questions to religious people

Fernapple comments on Apr 8, 2021:

Depends on the religion.

atheist something to think about

Fernapple comments on Apr 7, 2021:

Flattery will get you anything.

Anyone up to giving adam and eve some colors?

Fernapple comments on Apr 7, 2021:

Yes but what is he doing to that squirrel ? Perfect.

I wanna be as happy as that lioness. :D

Fernapple comments on Apr 7, 2021:

I am told that they do it for twenty four hours.

SciShow We Had Catnip All Wrong [youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on Apr 7, 2021:

You should paste this into the cat lovers group as well.

Anyone around to chat?( Preferably near my age)

Fernapple comments on Apr 6, 2021:

Hello and welcome enjoy the site. Don't worry about the time we are a global site, someone somewhere will be awake.

Worthy of sharing even as just Facebook musings.

Fernapple comments on Apr 6, 2021:

How about thoughtful.

My born again Christian younger brother made me promise I'd watch a film called Atheist Delusion by ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 5, 2021:

Link would be helpful. But having seen R.C. before I don't think I will bother.

Deep thoughts...

Fernapple comments on Apr 4, 2021:

Worse, do they just forget to take the condoms off after use, and walk about all day still wearing them . LOL

Beyond Ishtar: The Tradition of Eggs at Easter Don’t believe every meme you encounter.

Fernapple comments on Apr 4, 2021:

I just made this comment on another post, that I think a lot of people who are looking for ritual mythic origins of easter eggs especially are missing the main plot. I think that Easter egg hunting is a far more widespread and natural thing. Not really having any one ritual origin, though there may be odd records of some societies making rituals of it. In ancient and medieval times, food stores would often start to fall low by spring, ( Hence the Lenten fast is put in that season. ) and the first eggs laid by wild birds in the woods and hedgerows would be a valued burst of high calorie food in a hungry season. Especially for the very poor, whose children would be sent out to look for them. Doubly so, because before modern breeding and artificial lighting, even domestic hens would have stopped laying during the winter, so that the first eggs, even for the rich, would have been a special treat. Easter egg hunts therefore do not really need an origin, they were what everyone did naturally anyway.

The Young Turks SHOCKING % of Americans Can't Afford Healthcare [youtube.]

Fernapple comments on Apr 4, 2021:

Here is what happens in one of Europe's less wealthy countries, by an American couple. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGUHpva3Gbk=PLgi-Z0E0r2ALepOZVvtq5HwV02eOGzHX_=24

They have no shame!

Fernapple comments on Apr 4, 2021:

No one wants to run their fingers over his face !

Narwhal tusks tell a disturbing tale: [arstechnica.com]

Fernapple comments on Apr 4, 2021:

Sad , but at least it is another piece of evidence.

[arcane-alchemy.

Fernapple comments on Apr 4, 2021:

And all the joys of the season to you. (Especially if you live in the Northern hemisphere. )

Sunday ponder.

Fernapple comments on Apr 4, 2021:

I have heard of "Human Power", though I have also heard the saying that. "All power resides in the hand that rocks the cradle." Whoever that may be.

> "Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.

Fernapple comments on Apr 3, 2021:

Hello and welcome enjoy the site. No, I think that happiness takes work at least, and may also be genetically determined, and therefore never available to some people.

Such glowing praise...

Fernapple comments on Apr 3, 2021:

That must be fake. Its a really old joke.

Sometimes I'm not an atheist, people are so annoying I become an Apatheist.

Fernapple comments on Apr 3, 2021:

I agree, so I thought that a comment on muffins would be more interesting. (Sorry older members you will have seen this before, its just for Dragon Dust. ) Suppose for a minute, and for the sake of argument only, that there is a god, and an afterlife, including heaven and a hell; and that the god chooses whether people go to heaven, or if some go to hell, in fact the whole theist deal. Not only that, but the criterion on which the god makes the choice is based on the type of muffins they eat. ( Note: “eat” not prefer, this is not about free will or anything like that.) People who eat lemon muffins go to heaven and people who eat chocolate muffins go to hell, with limbo for those who don't eat muffins at all, naturally. Would that make a difference to your life ? Would you give up your chocolate muffins for an eternity of joy, and all the lemon buns after death you could ever eat ? Perhaps you would. But there is one vital thing that I forgot to mention about this god, which is that; this particular god, does not tell you about his thoughts on muffins, or how they affect your after life, in fact it keeps the whole thing a big secret just to itself, so that you have no way of knowing which muffins you have to eat. Then in that case, of course, you could not make the appropriate changes to your life, or save your soul anyway. In fact muffins, the gods preferences and even that god, would not impact on your life at all. The point is this. That a gods, souls, the afterlife etc. have no effect on anything, unless that god, or someone who knows, tells you about it, and you therefore have some knowledge of god's cake prejudices. Making this the big difference between religion, which pretends to offer knowledge of god the afterlife etc., and none belief which does not. Which is why the difference between atheists, humanists, agnostics and even deists, is so small and unimportant by comparison, because none claim any knowledge of gods preferences, and it is the pretense of fake knowledge, and of god given authority, which makes the big difference. Compared with that the differences between atheist and agnostic, even deist, and the existence or none existence of god, are trivial to the point of vanishing. And since I can not disprove god, but I can see the nonsense of Bibles and myths, good enough.

I had a GREAT Friday.

Fernapple comments on Apr 3, 2021:

You may enjoy this as well.. https://agnostic.com/group/photography/discussion/586857/avakas-gorge-in-cyprus-a-great-hike-with-a-chance-to-duck-under-the-overhanging-rock-back-in-the

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 3, 2021:

On the other hand people who are very unselfish, lend themselves to being exploited by those who are more selfish, which is good for neither of them. There is a balance to be struck, its complicated.

Easter Egg Hunts, what genius decided a Sumerian fertility ritual would be a great idea for kids?

Fernapple comments on Apr 3, 2021:

I think that Easter egg hunting is a far more widespread and natural thing. Not really having any one ritual origin, though there may be odd records of some societies making rituals of it. In ancient and medieval times, food stores would often start to fall low by spring, ( Hence the Lenten fast is put in that season. ) and the first eggs laid by wild birds in the woods and hedgerows would be a valued burst of high calorie food in a hungry season. Especially for the very poor, whose children would be sent out to look for them. Doubly so, because before modern breeding and artificial lighting, even domestic hens would have stopped laying during the winter, so that the first eggs, even for the rich, would have been a special treat. Easter egg hunts therefore do not really need an origin, they were what everyone did naturally anyway.

A list of defense (aka military) spending by countries this year.

Fernapple comments on Apr 3, 2021:

Russia actually has a tiny economy for such a large country, they can spend a huge proportion of it on military, yet it would still not be much. Russia's armed forces are large, yet many of them are armed with weapons that would be considered hang on the wall antiques in the rest of the world.

Good Friday

Fernapple comments on Apr 3, 2021:

I am not sure that Jesus was anti-death penalty, quite the contrary, did he not say that the 'Tares' (weeds, metaphorical, lost souls, ) should be put in a fire. Though that does contradict the Christian idea of Hell, since a fire of dry weeds does by its nature, burn quickly and only once, not for eternity.

I love spring! Pics from yesterday.

Fernapple comments on Apr 2, 2021:

Wow your spring is really advanced, we have a couple of months to get to that stage yet.

Frank Llyod Wright Spire, black and white treatment. Scottsdale, Arizona.

Fernapple comments on Apr 2, 2021:

Where is this please ?

Everyone hates April Fools’ Day — so why does it endure? - The Verge

Fernapple comments on Apr 1, 2021:

So does Christmas, and everybody really loathes that. LOL

Who would you be if you were the only person in the world?

Fernapple comments on Apr 1, 2021:

An endless traveler, in wonder at the flowering of the natural world.

Population Growth, Is It Out Of Control? [youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on Mar 31, 2021:

Yes. Preaching to the converted here.