The Spith

You didn't include that there are 13 windows

My one is the sound of ice being scraped by something, like when you remove something from a freezer with lots of frost. I can't stand it. My mother unfortunately can't stand the sound of paper being creased, like when you fold it in half and then press the edge to crease it. Causes lots of humorous incidents

Only mutations that occur during the meiosis of cells into gametes will be passed on into the offspring. If an adult individual develops a mutation in one of his cells during mitosis then the mutated cell will usually become cancerous and either be killed off by the immune system, or grow into a tumour.

I just started watching series 9 of stargate. I live in the UK so the second episode was only broadcast last night on sky one. I've missed quite a few episodes, as I don't watch it as religiously as I used to in the past, however I was quite shocked to see the changes. Nearly half the cast have been replaced. And weirder yet two characters from farscape seem to be in it. Have stargate and farscape merged somehow or is it just coincidence that the producers chose to use two characters from that series?

I've drunk at least a pint of full fat milk each morning of my life and I'm 6"6. Although literally just this week I've switched to semi-skimmed as it contains nearly exactly the same amount of 'good stuff' with much less saturated fat.

We don't know wether evolution was unguided or not? Yet as Martin pointed out you say ID followers 'know' that some things are too complex to arise by natural processes. Where do you get all this evidence to base your beliefs so firmly that you can say what is known and what is not known? I thought the main argument ID followers used to get the religion on the science curriculum was saying that the course did not allow room for different theories on the origin of life. From my perspective it seems like you are the one who has his mind made up firmly with no consideration of other theories. Going back to unguided evolution, I apologise for not making myself clear. When I say unguided I meant unguided by an intelligent being, such as a human or a deity. The theory of evolution includes its own designer - natural selection. We can see the effects of natural selection working quite clearly in nature with no need for any divine intervention - the bug that sticks out is the one that gets eaten by the bird, the ones better camouflaged survive and produce offspring. Saying that there are other theories of evolution which rely on a designer rather than, or in tandem to natural selection is not evolution at all. So saying that we don't know wether evolution is unguided or not, is wrong, as the basis of the theory is that it relies entirely on observable natural methods, with no intelligence involved.

I agree wholeheartedly with what you say about members of the media distorting scientific findings, and promoting undue attention on sometimes questionable findings. In the Gaurdian's last 'life' supplement, the author of the 'bad science' column wrote an article saying words to the same effect, although in that case the focus was mainly on nutritional supplements and homeopathy. As for educating people about religion and science, I'd say the main problem is getting people to understand that unguided evolution does not conflict with a belief in God, and then leave it for them to decide wether to be theist or not. The only people who will have problems with that will be those who believe the words of their religious texts to be literally true, and in those instances you will probably find any kind of reasoning futile.

O.O nice I wondered why I didn't log in automatically

I was given it for christmas but am yet to start reading it seriously. It's a very long book, and from my initial impressions it lacks the 'page turner' factor the rest of Dawkins' books have.

As a rower I use Swiss balls for exercise quite a lot in our squads core stability exercises. Whenever we use them we focus on switching on our abdominal muscles and using them to keep us balanced (the same way we balance boats). Although they perform this function very well I would not advise sitting on them for long periods of time. It takes quite a great deal of concentration to balance yourself on them correctly, and so you'd probably find it hard to both stay balanced and concentrate on your work. If you are serious about using a ball to sit on though I'd reccomend spending some time practicing first an building up your abdominal strength. A simple exercise is to sit on the edge of your chair and try alternately raising each leg just a little bt of the ground without shifting your weight at all.

Science Fiction mainly. My favourites would have to be: Dune (my bible) and all its sequals. Philip K Dick's books ("Do androids dream of electric sheep" and "minority report" Everything by Isaac Asimov, especially the foundation series. Also some stuff that people sometimes classify as SF, and sometimes as fantasy e.g. Pratchett's books and the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. *Gazes over at bookshelf* Yeah, the rest is just anything that interests me

My favourite genre I guess would be no genre at all. Films that are new and original, and completely free of cliche. There aren't too many films of this sort. Pretty much all blockbusters are commervial constructions that follow formulas of how a film should go. I guess I like this genre a bit too. You can always tell yourself vampires, werewovles etc don't exist, but a good Sci fi horror is something which is (perhaps very improbable) but still possible. Alien was pretty good, and I enjoyed watching my friend hide behind a pillow in fear. . Event horizon scared the hell out of me, especially the bit where they finally saw the entire distress call.

Glad to see I could be of assistance. There probably are more things that contribute to empathy. Like any other psychological trait it is likely to have a large number of possible causes and factors contributing to it. One thing I thought up recently was the way in which you respond to a situation, and whether your response is emotional or analytical. This I think is one of the main differences between empaths and non-empaths. If you wish to control your empathy through this trait then whenever you meet someone in some sort of distress, try to think of what the best thing you can be doing to help them is, the same way a medic doesn’t get distressed by seeing someone in pain. They just treat them the way they have been trained to. If you want to learn a bit more about the way your mind works, particularly with regards to imagination, then I recommend some of Tony Buzan’s books. Although they are focused on memory, they have helped me understand a lot about how my mind works. A better ability to remember things has also proved useful for me as I’m naturally forgetful.

Because many people don't understand science? Or at least don't understand it as much as they would like. And people fear what they don't understand. There is also the hatred generated towards real scientists by pseudo-scientists, which the media tend to pick up on far too much. Especially tabloids and the right wing. Just read the bad science column of the gaurdian's 'life' supplement. Oh wait life just ended last week

All depends on how you use the word 'apes' I guess. If you classify humans as apes then the argument we evolved from them is a bit absurd. My point was assuming the author meant modern/current apes. The alternative is that he meant ape ancestors in the past which was not specified And finally shinbits, probability is a science of guesses, and is no basis for an argument. I can flip a coin 100 times and the probability of me getting 100 heads is exceedingly low, however the chances of me getting what I do get are equally improbable. You have also shown that you have no understanding of the mechanism of evolution. Before you try and dispute something, I suggest you learn a bit more about it. Evolution is not a random process. Mutations are random, the process of evolution is both cumulative and selective.

You see right there, we already know this is bullshit. We share a common ancestor, we didn’t evolve from them. That’s what accounts for the differences. You think engineers start from scratch when they design new planes? Momentum which keeps us in orbit. Differing orbits which don’t overlap. It would be pretty hard in all the billions of miles of space you’ve already talked about. Oh sure thing: Are you a creationist? -Yes Do you beleive in God? -Yes What eveidence do you have? -None

Ok here are my thoughts on the subject, and ideas as to how this might work. Of course I have little education in psychology, so I’m sure there are more knowledgeable people here who may disagree with what I say. To me it would seem that your ‘condition’ arises from three main things: 1) Good perception of body language/emotional state 2) A well trained imagination 3) A selfless personality All of these are quite admirable qualities, however if you wish to control your empathy you will have to try and limit the effect of one of these. I’ll begin with imagination. Imagination is a skill that not very many people in the western (developed) world train, and as such a good imagination is quite rare. People are exposed to the media and television, which tends to provide entertainment for them without the need for any mental exercise. A good imagination is, in scientific terms, the ability to model a situation in your head. It is one of the major parts of having a good memory, as when you sense a stimulus in your environment, it is your imagination which will come up with ways that the stimulus is linked to a stored memory, and cause recall of a memory to occur. In the case of empathy you are imagining the emotional state of a person, using the clues that they openly show through facial expressions, body language, tone of voice etc. This is where your perception comes in. Good perception of emotion is a trait common among female brains, something that is favored by evolution, as females will typically raise children, and so recognizing the needs of a person through expressions is crucial when raising babies unable to communicate by speaking. These two abilities of perception and imagination provide you with a very clear image in your head of what a person is feeling. The final part, which causes your feelings of nausea and sadness, is your selflessness. Simply put, you care so much for others that you can’t bear to see them in pain, and so you share the same emotions as them, perhaps even more so as there is no way for you to stop the source of the persons unhappiness (you may not even know what it is). If you wished to stop your empathy, then I suggest the best way to do it is to stop or reduce one of the three traits. Your perception of body language will be the most difficult to stop or reduce as it is something you do naturally. Trying to stop this would be the equivalent of trying to prevent arachnophobia by not looking at spiders (works in theory, but not so well in real life). Imagination is also somewhat difficult, but there are ways. trying to occupy your thoughts with other tasks could dampen your ability to imagine. However I would advise against this, as if you spend too much time watching TV, and filling your mind with all the menial pursuits the rest of us follow, you may lose some of your individuality as well as a rare and useful skill. Therefore the easiest option left open to you is to be less selfless. This is certainly something you don’t want to take to the extreme, as again selflessness is certainly something in short supply in the world. On the other hand, you should be able to keep a balance, and if feeling someone’s pain is causing you too much torment then there is nothing wrong with just stepping back a bit. Remember that a lot of the time people get themselves into trouble, and a lot of the time retribution will do them more good than sympathy. Anyways, that’s my take on it.

Hillarious

I've been reading this thread a bit more and have come up with some ideas, but first just a quick question to the empaths on this thread: Would you like to stop being empathic?

I'm starting my last year of school/college in a weeks time and will soon be looking for Universties. I already know I want to study Genetics and I Have a good idea of what Unis I will be applying to. I am therefore interested in doing some reading around the subject I want to study and would appreciate any books/websites people recommend. So far I have read most of Dawkin's books and 'DNA the secret of life' by James watson. My teachers have also recommended Matt Ridley's Genome and various works by Prof. Steve Jones. Anyone know of any others?

Reckon they put these two together deliberately?

I recommend you all read 'The Devils Chaplain'. It's a collection of essays which were the first book of his work I read. Some of it is on evolution, but most of it is on belief and it answers a lot of the questions people have been asking on this thread. It also mentions the Australian interview that someone posted. From what I can remember from the book it would seem like that clip is false as Mokele said. Dawkins wrote that these Australians were a two man film crew who asked him to film him at work (I think they were also staying at his home for a while as well) and then asked him from an interview. Their first question was the one in that clip and Dawkins said it was only then he realised they were creationists 'due to the way the question was phrased' and he stopped the interview (a large part of the rest of the book talks about why he will not debate with creationists). He then goes on to answer the question fully in an essay.

Why are these ads allowed on the site? I know they are chosen by a google, and not the site creators, but surely they can be changed or something. BTW - they are both ID sites dressed up, or adverts for ID books in disguise

Man what BS that article is: I thought he said he understood evolution. Then why the hell does he think the universe was 'built' for life when evolution teaches that life adapts to the universe. Not even an attempt at providing evidence here. 'Highly unlikely' - says who? Him? Anyone who believes in religion, believes that there is something special about humans which puts them apart from the rest of the universe (other than high intelligence and the ability to use tools). And so in the end religion boils down to ego. I can't wait til the day we find other intelligence in the universe. Let them try and look that up in their holy books.