Poll

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Do people have intrinsic Rights simply because they exist? Rights that come with no responsibilities?
	Yes
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"Sleep well and Wake" & Desktop Search

Looks like your right Christina, Jared's "Sleep well and wake" does appear likely to have originated from the Wheel of Time series.

A prime quote from the books being:

“Sleep well and wake, Rand al’Thor.” Only an Aiel would wish you a good night by hoping you did not die in your sleep.

The wonders of desktop search!
Note if your running Windows XP, I highly recommend you download and install Google Desktop Search to handle searching your documents. I found it to be one of the most useful tools on my laptop when doing my Masters papers, being able to type in a fragment of something you remember reading in a paper and having Google Desktop find the appropriate research paper with in seconds is unbelievable useful.
If your running Linux then install Beagle Desktop Search and if MacOS X 10.4(?) upwards then you don't need to install any thing Spotlight will do it for you.

Ale's Well with the World: Scientific American

Ale's Well with the World: Scientific American
An odd little article for all you beer drinkers.
A quote from it...
"He who drinks beer sleeps well. He who sleeps well cannot sin. He who does not sin goes to heaven. The logic is impeccable."

Photos: Easter 07, West Coast

Well for those of you who are interested, among those who went and those who stayed, Speculum Conlectio and my Flickr account have been updated with Images from Easter.
As usual panoramas, scenery, etc Flickr; People Speculum Conlectio.

Additional Images will be uploaded next week when Anaru is less busy.
Update: Additional images from/suggested by Alethea now online.

Flickr Images

Speculum Conlectio Images.

A Question

Would you agree with the statement that:

The ends justify the means.

Why/why not?

How we learned to stop having fun.

How we learned to stop having fun

Not so with the Calvinist version of Protestantism. Instead of offering relief, Calvinism provided a metaphysical framework for depression: if you felt isolated, persecuted and possibly damned, this was because you actually were.

An article looking at an apparent change in behavior ~3-400 years ago, where people moved to a much more individualistic world view. Suggesting urbanisation and a market-based economy are partially responsible for this.
Also interestingly suggests there may have been a link between a Calvinistic world view/faith and Depression/Suicide.

God Debate: Sam Harris vs. Rick Warren

God Debate: Sam Harris vs. Rick Warren

The God Debate
At the Summit: On a cloudy California day, the atheist Sam Harris sat down with the Christian pastor Rick Warren to hash out Life's Biggest Question—Is God real?

Well having read the whole thing I'm rather impressed, Rick manages to do rather well. Personally much of what he says seems a lot less confrontational than the other chap, though I certainly don't agree with some of what he says regarding his views on certain aspects of Christianity. Any way here are a couple of interesting/amusing bits from the article, and I highly recommend you have a read of it!


WARREN: I say I accept that by faith. And I think it's intellectually dishonest for you to say you have proof that it didn't happen. Here's the difference between you and me. I am open to the possibility that I am wrong in certain areas, and you are not.

HARRIS: Oh, I am absolutely open to that.

WARREN: So you are open to the possibility that you might be wrong about Jesus?

HARRIS: And Zeus. Absolutely.

WARREN: And what are you doing to study that?

HARRIS: I consider it such a low-probability event that I—

WARREN: A low probability? When there are 96 percent believers in the world? So is everybody else an idiot?

I wish he'd let the chap finish that statement, it would have been more interesting than the "idiot" charge.

Another Section:

So, parse that. God gave you an immigration attorney, but God killed a little girl.
WARREN: Well, I do believe in the goodness of God, and I do believe that he knows better than I do. God sometimes says yes, God sometimes says no and God sometimes says wait. I've had to learn the difference between no and not yet. The issue here really does come down to surrender. A lot of atheists hide behind rationalism; when you start probing, you find their reactions are quite emotional. In fact, I've never met an atheist who wasn't angry.

HARRIS: Let me be the first.

WARREN: I think your books are quite angry.

HARRIS: I would put it at impatient rather than angry...