Creationist Corner.

 A few weeks ago, I picked up a few books to read, the good Bill Hicks biography and as it was 2 for a quid a book on Creationism from a guy called Harun Yahya, complete with someones wedding photos stuffed in the pages, (this is why it was bought initially.)

The biography was good, and pretty much told me all I needed to know about one of the best comedians ever. Darwinism refuted however...

Let's get this over with, I fully believe in evolution, materialism and that the universe is unimaginably old. No, I do not know where life came from or how the universe began, I just know it doesn't have a designer, or that things are irreducibly complex.

That over, I will say, this book is a boring, shallow and contradictory pile of garbage I have had the displeasure to read. It's one differing feature being that Allah is the creator rather than the Christian God is new, but the arguments are the same. 

There is the eye and bacterium flagellum being held up as the pinnacle of irreducible complexity.

The old Junkyard 747 reconstruction hypothesis is given a run out. And in some magical serendipity IFM is playing Scrapyard by Tangerine Dream in the background. More on serendipity later.

We're spared anything on strata, focusing on various animals that have stayed the same despite millions of years without a shred of irony that they too have evolved. I quote from an old Digitizer video I saw, but it boils down to this: You are a crab, your daddy was a crab before you, hence you will always be a crab.

Finally we have the secret bit at the back, explaining that Allah dun it all. With quotes from the Quran to back up his "evidence" just like what Christians do with the Bible.

My favourite quote is that we are all shadows in a world where only Allah is real, which just reminds me of the Plato's Cave argument, rewritten by an Islamic apologist. 

Finally as we always have a few books on the go we have the current issue of Fortean Times open when finishing it off and there is an update about a certain Adnan Oktar, cult leader, sex trafficker and all round weirdo. Wiki has him sentenced to 9000 years in jail, whereas FT puts it at the much more modest 1000. That's a millennium in prison, and a Turkish prison at that. 

Oh and if you are wondering what is the link between the two. Harun Yahya is of course Adnan's pen name, which he pumped out a string of awful creationist literature, some of it aimed at kids.

 

Yellow Feathers and Curiosity Shows

Another book is up for your pleasure. This time it is the Yellow Feather Mystery, one of the top tier Hardy Boys adventures, and we've finally found another old show from The Children's Channel, on Twitter of all places.

The Curiosity Show

Along with Round the Twist and Kaboodle, this was the third part of the Aussie show trilogy to air on Cable back when I was small. While I remember fuck all about Kaboodle, I do remember the Curiosity show, two guys, who made things and games such as tip-cat (which my grandad, who was down at the time, said he used to play.) and some sort of berry that made everything sweet (Synsepalum). I also forgot what it was called. 

It didn't help that the That's Incredible bit from the Fast Show is a direct rip of this (more like affectionate homage.) and for years later. I'd think about the show, but without a name, it would be foolish to search.

Scrolling twitter midweek, and there is a clip of the familiar presenter showing an optical illusion. I scroll down the credits and there is a name. A good 35 years after I've seen the show, I finally have a name for it all. Best of all there is a Youtube Channel, and the original guys have the rights to it all.

Yellow Feather Mystery.

This seems to be an afterthought, after I found this, but we have finally finished typing up the latest book.

Both issues of the Yellow Feather Mystery, are classic Hardy Boys and can easily rank up there with the old, Les Macfarlane stories. 

The boys have been tasked with regaining a will for a Greg Woodson, whose grandfather ran the prestigious Woodson academy, a school that their father went to. A missing will and a shadowy character called the Yellow Feather seems to be out to stop the boys from succeeding. Its also one of the only stories I've come across where Chet seems to be heroic. He has an Ice sled in this as it's the depths of winter, and comes to the boys aid in the final chapter.

Anyway both Original and UK remake are available here and here. 

Round up again

 Here is a round up of some old articles and a new scan of stuff. First up is an update on Haiti, of all places.

Haiti.

The current BCSS journal has 10 page exploration of Haiti undertaken by Paul Hoxey and some fellows from the Gibraltar Botanic Garden. It focuses on a new Melocactus from the north of the island along with a discussion on the Opuntia offshoot Consolea in the islands. There is a huge obituary for Terry Smale which I also covered a few months back.

There is a great article on the succulent Malvaceae so all you Baobab fans will certainly get a kick out of this. Me, I haven't read it yet, just flicked through, though it does have the World tree from Maya lore aka the Ceiba along with Sterculia and Brachychiton, both Aussie bottle trees.

Edit, Article read now and it, indeed, rocks.

Amiga disk artwork.

Found this floppy whilst giving my room a clear out. Its in a hard plastic case and can remember getting this from Greytronics in Croydon, when we went to have our disk drive replaced. They had a few of these in a box on a shelf. I think I got relockick downgrader* and this and will scan that if I can find it.

Bombmania if the name doesn't explain it, is a Bomberman clone for the Amiga 1200, can't remember if it was a good PD game or not, just that for some reason it has a scroller for our dear daddy at Irata on the title screen._

 * Found it, it's called Kick 1.3 and is indeed a kickstart rom downgrader for Amiga 500+ through to Amiga 4000 computer line. It has a label and "Boxart" so will add this as an addendum, if I think of it.

Well printer needed ink in order for the scanner to function, which is triply fucked, but after selling a kidney to buy ink, we now have these scanned too.

I regret to inform you that the Gamers are "mass killing" again

Seems that us ragging on Jack Thompson back in the 90's wasn't enough for the hacks at the Daily Fail, as they've brought the old video game violence argument back, due to a spate of machete attacks across London. (Pro tip: Greenwich maybe leafy, but its basically the inner city with some trees.)

The original article is here if you want to see how much they've fucked up. And given the amount of people just clowning on the main points in the article, or, pointing out that the lax amount of justice dealt out to criminals who routinely carry knives, you can see their point.

Its been 30 years on from Mortal Kombat, a good 22 or so from GTA was released for the PS1 and although there has been regular studies showing no real link between video game violence and real world violence. These bastards still trot it out as if it was real, established fact.

Put it this way, given the massive amounts of surplus Fifa games that regularly turn up in bargain bins and charity shops, and that everything gaming has a real world effect. Shouldn't England (or Wales, or Scotland or Norn Iron. too) be absolutely awash with top rate footballers, instead of us crashing out at the quarter finals like in every world cup.