From the category archives:

The Odd Stuff

Atheists behaving badly: the Dawkinsgate fiasco

February 25, 2010

Before commenting on the – well fiasco doesn’t seem to strong a word, but let’s be more neutral away from the headline and say – kerfuffle at Richard Dawkins’ official site, let me point you to some posts dealing with it.

The man himself is outraged
But so is one of the seemingly dismissed moderators.
Ruth Gledhill comments [...]

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Princess Leia and the pound of Lego flesh

February 16, 2010
Princess-Leia.jpg

There are a variety of ways in which I am finding this a little unbelievable. It’s not the Lego Star Wars, I have a problem with. It’s not even that anyone would recreate Jabba the Hutt’s barge in Lego. Nor, although my incredulity is growing, is it even that it looks like they’ve painted [...]

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Danger – woman teaching? Hoist on her own petard.

February 15, 2010

I hadn’t previously had anything to say about the latest outbreak of fundamentalist misogyny in the Church of England: the vicar and curate outraging their congregation by telling women to shut up and submit to their husbands.
Subsequently, it seems that the leaflet of “biblical” teaching on women was not the work of the Reform vicar, [...]

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Fake giants in archaeology photographs: fun or deceit?

February 11, 2010
giantskullfake.jpg

Michael Heiser posts some photos he’s been emailed of archaeologists excavating the skull of a giant. He also notes some reasons why they are fake. (That’s apart from the obvious one that there’s no such thing.)
I’d like to add a couple of others. One of the first things I check when I suspect fakery is [...]

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Spam and flagellation

February 8, 2010

There are always those spammers who hope that a piece of general flattery about your blog will tempt you into ignoring the generic unresponsiveness of the comment, or the link embedded in it.
Even while not being fooled, I shall treasure today’s example, which seems to have been through some kind of computer translation programme:
I absolutely [...]

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Misleading sexpectations

February 4, 2010

And another wonderful advert

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Sometimes you just need a drink

February 4, 2010

I’m not quite sure how I missed this advert when it was on.

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The perils of future gazing

January 19, 2010
computer.jpg

Daniel Sinker is reproducing pages from a children’s book by Geoffrey Hoyle (Sir Fred’s son) written in 1972 envisaging life in 2010. Here are some examples

In the year 2010 you do not sleep on a bed. There are no beds, no tables, no chairs. The floor is made for sitting, sleeping, and walking on. It [...]

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Witherington or Blitherington?

December 13, 2009

I’m aware that Ben Witherington is often credulous about various archaeological claims like the James Ossuary. He also seems to me to be overly trusting of the sources, and able to gloss over other peoples sticking points. However, I was quite astonished to see his latest post, passing on a chain email.
Not only does the [...]

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And Jesus said to his disciples: “When I was in Glastonbury …”

November 26, 2009

I was alerted to this story by a radio journalist’s enquiry about my views on Jesus’ hidden years. I know nothing more about the mentioned film than is reported in the story, so I’m going to limit my comments about it, until (and unless) I get a chance to see it – if I ever [...]

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