Tom Morris

Since we have less than two minutes left (GMT) of 2005, I should close out this year by linking you to an amusing and yet extremely relevant post: What It Feels Like to be an Atheist by Brent Rasmussen. Read this. Learn from it. Then perhaps, with regards to the bizarre mixture of sad comedies and evil tragedies that happened this year in the name of religion, we might be able to avoid a few more next year. I'm thinking of Pat Robertson, intelligent design, saying that the gays caused Hurricane Katrina, the faith-based terrorism we saw in London on July the 7th, the farce known as the "war on Christmas", Harriet Miers, the crazy exorcisms in London, the continuing saga in Boston with the child-fondling priests, and, perhaps worst of all, the way that Muslim superstition has caused an outbreak of polio among children. If 2005 has taught us anything, it is perhaps don't listen to the guys in robes if you want people to stay alive! 2005-12-31T23:49:55Z

Learn Japanese podcast. Subscribed. 2005-12-31T20:59:07Z

I've been reading Crank Dot Net. Fantastic. I particularly like The Delusion Resistance: "There are many people out there who haven't made a decision for Jesus yet. Some are avid believers in UFO's, and/or evolution." They also link to World Net Daily as a reliable news source. 2005-12-31T19:24:50Z

Wow, Dave has just added my LibriVox OPML to his Community Directory. Thanks! 2005-12-31T18:20:38Z

The New York Times has a story on the latest salvoes in the Boston priest child abuse cases. 2005-12-31T17:45:16Z

Big Al at Alarrhea on Mel Gibson: "The man was a stark, raving loonie." And nothing's changed except he was given, in The Passion, a big canvas to advertise his craziness. 2005-12-31T17:38:36Z

Ajax Tranlsator. Very nice. 2005-12-31T16:46:36Z

Rich Karlgaard: "Don't judge blogging by the "average" blog. The average blog is amateurish, just as the average crooner is no American Idol. The law of large numbers guarantees that. How many blogs are out there? Maybe millions. Soon billions. This means, of course, that the vast majority of blogs will be of no interest to you or me." 2005-12-31T15:17:36Z

Adam Curry links to my OPML file. Again, if anyone has any suggestions on how to make the LibriVox OPML file better (or better yet, to automate it), drop me an email. 2005-12-31T14:35:56Z

ABC News have an article on how Hollywood is losing money again. Of course, the reason is blindingly simple: no movies worth seeing, cinemas that cost far too much to go to, crappy experiences in the cinemas (dirty floors, txt msging morons, screaming kids etc.) and, worst of all, Hollywood being a place where there's all but a sign outside saying "Please leave your ideas at the door." 2005-12-31T14:28:36Z

Ken Tompkins thinks that humanities students need 'labs' so that faculty and students can connect daily. 2005-12-31T13:53:43Z

Citizen Scientist links to the Smithsonian's pictures of the Scopes Monkey Trial. 2005-12-31T13:51:08Z

San Francisco Chronicle: "The idea that there is a "war on Christmas" is just absurd. To the Christians who are howling the loudest for a public showdown, we remind you that the religious significance of the holiday is not defined by mass-produced Hallmark sentiments or by store displays in a shopping mall, but by what individuals do in their homes and churches." 2005-12-31T13:33:24Z

Lisa Williams is looking in to hacking Frontier and the OPML Editor. She links to Serious First Steps in Frontier Scripting. Interesting. 2005-12-31T13:25:31Z

Sid Yadav has a review of newsRiver.root and a discussion of why he prefers River of News. 2005-12-31T13:18:57Z

Nice. I'm a top-level category editor on IndiePodder. This OPML stuff kicks ass. Thanks Adam. 2005-12-31T12:51:33Z

Ross McKibbin has an interesting article about politics (in the broadest sense), and specifically Gordon Brown and David Cameron. 2005-12-31T05:35:44Z

Kent Newsome: "One of the reasons I believe the RSS application race is still very much on is because of the difficulty in presenting the information in a logical, intuitive and easy to navigate manner." 2005-12-31T04:47:07Z

I've finally sttared playing with digg. One thing I don't understand. Since stories are entered by URL (rather than just by stories - as with Slashdot), surely when you submit a story, it should check the database to see whether it's already been entered and warn the user if it has. 2005-12-31T04:40:09Z

Now that data retention legislation has been passed, it's time that we all ignore it. And, equally important, help others break through this. We need to build applications and scripts and set up servers to help break through this. How about an ISP built on the following lines: it's invite-only, and offers an invitation to anybody who posts the statement "I oppose all attempts by the government to implement restrictions on the Internet access of it's citizens, especially in the form of data retention legislation, and will act both politically and technologically to defeat this technology." on their blog. 2005-12-31T01:43:18Z

Johnathan Pearce on the Government's new "zero tolerance" policies regarding prostitution: "This government is starting to make Oliver Cromwell sound like Hugh Hefner." 2005-12-31T01:38:42Z

James Randi: "But be sure: there will be appeals, lawyers will buy yachts, and we will be paying, some April 15th up ahead, for all the legal maneuvering that is being launched at this very moment." Hmm. Since the Dover Eight got voted out and the judge put out a pretty damn clear judgement, somehow I don't think so. Read on for some cracking comments about that tosser Uri Geller. 2005-12-31T01:09:40Z

Jason Rosenhouse "If you're just dying to know what Judge Jones actually wrote in his 139 page opinion, but for some reason you don't want to slog through the whole thing, feel free have a look at my Cliff's Notes version." 2005-12-31T00:08:42Z