octave

Onetrack, forgive my quoting of your post. It just helps me remember the points I wish to make. I don't think that is what the theory of evolution proposes. Giraffes did not just develop long necks but because all giraffes are not identical some had slightly longer necks (due to errors in gene copying). If this provided a survival advantage then the slightly longer neck creatures will be more reproductively successful and are more likely to mate with other environmentally favoured individuals. A straightforward example is the peppered moth. During the industrial revolution, trees became darkened by coal smoke. This meant that the normally light-coloured moth became easier for birds to pick off. Within the range of colours the darker moths were slightly more likely to avoid this fate thus the light-coloured pepper moth population began to darken due to natural selection. Whilst the human body (and any animal really) is complaex it does have some shoddy engineering. Most of us as men of a certain age are not impressed with the "designers" decision to run the urethra through the prostate, an organ that is prone to enlarge and interrupt the flow in later life. Nice one. or perhaps the Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve anyone? It can be explained by embryology but is hard to understand from an intentional design perspective. Whilst this may seem too incredible is it really more incredible than an infinite supreme being who can create the whole universe and everything in it and yet require acknowledgment and gratitude? The notion of everlasting life is a little harder to comprehend in my opinion. The term "afterlife" is always left vague. The proposition seems that you must acknowledge god in order to secure everlasting life. Presumably, this rules out slugs and dogs etc. A quick Google tells me that, it is thought the old testament was written between 1200 and 165 BC. Modern Homo Sapiens date back to about 160000 years. These early humans would not have access to the bible and therefore would not have the opportunity to understand the deal being offered. Other early hominids perhaps did not even have the intellectual capacity to understand the concept of a supreme being. A genuine question for people who believe in an afterlife (and I have no problem with people believing that), what is this afterlife supposed to be like? I know different people have ideas. Some believe in the idea of being reunited with previous deceased loved ones. The last time I visited my grandmother about 20-something years ago in aged care she believed my young son was me and she thought I was a stranger. This was because her brain had changed due to dementia. If we were to be reunited (I guess I would have to praise the big fella for this to happen) then will she be Grandma 2000 edition or 1970 edition? My consciousness seems to be a manifestation of the billions of neurons in my brain which have been modified through experiences. If I have a stroke then who I am may be very different than who I was pre-stroke. I am reminded of Clive Wearing a British musicologist and conductor who contracted a disease that damaged his hippocampus. This man is famous for not being able to store short-term memories, every 20 seconds or so it is as if his memory is rebooted. I wonder if this would be a problem in the afterlife. I suppose he would not have the capacity to accept a god anyway, perhaps there is a clause to cover this. According to the internets there are 2.2 billion Christians and 1.6 billion Muslims and 1.1 Non religous people. I guess we could say that out of all religions, Christians are ahead although if you add up Muslims and Non-religious then you could say that most of the people of Earth are not Christians. And yet some people believe we are regularly visited by aliens. And I have no problem with people's personal philosophies. I do not think that not believing in an afterlife equates with nothing to look forward to. For me the fact that life or conciseness is finite makes me appreciate the one life I have. The notion of being conscious for eternity seems horrific to me. I am OK with not existing, it is nothing new. I was in a state of nonexistence from 1962 going back approximately 13.77 Billion years. Not existing is hard for my human brain to imagine however the time between my birth and the beginning of the universe is no more perplexing than the time between my death and the end of the universe. Does eternal life continue after the demise of the universe? As an atheist who believes life is finite like the universe itself, my life is precious and must be enjoyed as much as possible. Indeed to me, it is the fact that my life will end one day that makes me strive to enjoy my existence. Earlier in my life I was probably more willing to argue. These days I am pretty mellow really although I do object a little to some of the ideas that not being a believer leads to some kind of barren joyless life. If there is a great creator and an afterlife then there are a few options. I could die and the great creator says "Well you did not believe in me despite the vague clues, but I am not a petty vengeful god, so in you come" or there is a great creator and an afterlife and I will miss out but luckily will not be conscious to be aware of my loss. I suppose there is the burning pit of hell option but it seems unlikely.

It does not seem an absurd subject to me. Having a look at the available courses I can see a certificate course and a degree course. I am not particularly interested in horses myself but I can understand that vets assistants and people who are involved in the racing industry would benefit from gaining knowledge in these subjects. If the course is crap then it is up to these industries to insist on improvements to the curriculum. I would have thought that tertiary studies would have been undertaken by women rather than girls.

Yeah, that is the myth however most people who knock a BA don't even know what it is.

I think it is easy to have a go at highly qualified PhDs etc without fully appreciating their input to the things we expect. As an example we expect medical science to advance. We expect research to come up with better treatments for cancer and other conditions. I know a young woman who was in Australia for a few years doing her PhD. She came to Australia because it is a leader in the field she was working in. She was researching (and I might have the title wrong) nanobiotechnology. Specifically, this was about creating particles of an exact (but tiny) size). The purpose of this is to hopefully create particles that can transport cancer drugs specifically to the cancer cells instead of poorly targeting chemo drugs. I think it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that people less educated than me are dumb losers and those much more educated are somehow useless to society.

I am not necessarily against these events being hosted in Melbourne. There is a big difference though. The events you mention (other than the Olympics) utilize existing infrastructure. My problem is with rebuilding new arenas, courts, and fields, etc, when these things already exist. The economic case does not stack up.

It is surely irrelevant. We do not have a duty to go through something that does not financially stack up in order to prevent other countries from making similar decisions. I do certainly think questions should be asked about the soundness of the original decision to host.

There are coffee beans grown in warmer parts of Australia. https://www.mountaintopcoffee.com.au/ By the way, fun fact, what we call coffee beans are not beans at all but in fact seeds.

I did not know this but apparently gotten goes back a long way. Got and Gotten: The Differences Both got and gotten existed as far back as Middle English. English speakers in North America preserved gotten as the past participle of got. Outside of North America, the shortened version became standard. https://www.grammarly.com/blog/got-gotten/ Ill-gotten gains?

I have always wondered about the word "aviatrix" since the definition of "aviator" is not gender specific. a·vi·a·tor (ā′vē-ā′tər, ăv′ē-) n. One who operates an aircraft; a pilot.

Not in the public health system. A friend of my son's is a junior doctor at John Hunter Hospital in the emergency department. He certainly does not earn $1000 a day and the hours are pretty shit. Doctor Salaries in Australia – What Should I Expect?

I think the Republicans have a real problem. Trump is way ahead in poling for the primaries. The far-right policies such as limiting women's reproductive rights anti trans etc. are very popular with a large section of registered Republicans and MAGA crowd. This is why Desantis is trying to move further right than Trump. This is an advantage when it comes to the Republican primaries. The problem is that these things are very unpopular with the electorate as a whole. in other words, the policies that will get a presidential candidate elected in the Republican primaries are also the policies that will likely ensure that Trump loses in the presidential election.

It is hard to deny that fuel companies knew about the dangers of CO2 from burning fuels. They knew it and publicly admitted it years ago although privately put money into campaigns to deny the science. This is much the same as tobacco companies.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4411090-Document3

The scientific evidence is not relying on individual events. Whether it be sea temperature or surface temperature the temperature has risen and the rate is increasing. High-temperature records are being broken more often. Sea temperature in Florida reaches 38C - potentially a world record, Note - I linked to a conservative news source not a lefty source. Heat records are broken around the globe as Earth warms — and fast 2022 Tied for Fifth Warmest Year on Record -NASA Earth Observatory When people use the term hoax I tend to think of them like people who say "moon landing hoax. How would such a hoax operate in practice? NASA - Hi there JAXA we are about to post some made-up satellite temperature measurements and we wanted to make sure you backed us up by manipulating data from your satellites. Better all ESA too.

Here is a clip featuring Australian Jazz greats Don Burrows, Julian Lee, and James Morrison. Don Burrows was a great influence on me back in the day. Later on, as a music teacher one of my Sax students was offered the chance to attend a master class with Don through her school. She said that she was too nervous to play in front of him. I was able to convince her to give it a try. At her next lesson, she was so excited. She told me how nice he was and super encouraging. This video was from about 5 years ago. Don Burrows was a mentor for James Morrison in his earlier career and in Don's later life, James returned the favour. Don Burrows got quite bad arthritis which slowed him down a bit. By the end, he also had Alzheimer's but was still able to enjoy music. The Morrison brothers are also well-qualified pilots.

There are many Aboriginal place names that we don't bat an eyelid at because we have become used to them. Have a scroll through this list and imagine that you hadn't been brought up with these names. I imagine you would deem these names to be unpronounceable List of Australian place names of Aboriginal origin When my son moved to NZ he made the effort to learn the pronunciation rules. We I go there I try to pronounce place names properly. If I get it wrong no one really cares. .

Most of these changes are not instant. We are not talking about removing old names and replacing them, we are talking about adding more information over time. Names of places have never been frozen in time. I would be against any sudden wholesale replacement but that is not what is happening. If you pick up an old paper map that is years old you will find changes, Whenever I arrive in NZ at the airport I am greeted with "Kia Ora, welcome to Aortera New Zealand". I think this is quintessentially Kiwi and extremely endearing to me. Presumably, this was not always the case and at some time in the past, this was added. We don't need rapid wholesale change however there will always be incremental small changes. There always has been change and to think the things should now be frozen in time is a bit sad really.

This appears to be from an article in the Daily Mail which is a paper not known for high journalistic standards. Strangely I would have thought this would have been picked up by other news outlets. I can't seem to find it anywhere, not even Sky News. But let's analyze this story. The headline is that the ABC no longer uses the name Wellington but now uses the Maori name exclusively. This is totally false. My son lives in Wellington so I do pay attention when there is news from Welly. The headline is false. "Coverage of the 1-1 draw in Wellington, New Zealand, between the United States and the Netherlands on Thursday afternoon was accompanied by the place name 'Te Whanganui-a-Tara', in the Indigenous Maori language." I am not a sports fan so I did not watch the game referred to. I do find the language intriguing though "accompanied by the place name 'Te Whanganui-a-Tara'. "Accompanied" is not the same as "replaced" Here is a picture from the article. This example is the included indigenous name. It is not replacing anything it is simply adding more information which you are free to ignore if you like. My problem is that media like the Daily Mail and Sky News etc. don't make their money from well-researched stories but by enraging people who are probably already angry anyway. They whip up outrage because it is a business model that works for them. I recently went to a link that was posted on this forum which took me to a Sky News video. This woman ranted and raved in a bogan way (probably an act for the viewers) about how the airport had changed the name of Brisbane. Two minutes of research showed me that SOME airports were flashing up the indigenous name alternating with the established names. it with leave people confused she ranted. She asserted that the name had just been changed and the name Brisbane was no more again BS. She then went on to say that Australia Post was insisting that mail must be addressed with the indigenous name. again BS, there is simply an extra line to write it if you want to. I usually do if I am not in a hurry because learning something new is good. Absolutely none of this has anything to do with an advisory body to the government. Don't let the fear merchants manipulate you.

Yep, it is the rebrand of Melbourne football club specifically for the Doug Nichols round and the AFLW indigenous round. This doesn't seem to be difficult to understand. Yes, I did look that up. The notion that someone would be scratching their head saying I don't understand is a little sad. Google is your friend. The rebranding which I understand is for these 2 indigenous rounds like all rebrandings may start slow but in a short time most people with become familiar with it. Most days I will read an article where I may come across a word that I am unfamiliar with. It is OK to learn new things.

It does. Ayers Rock or Uluru? Australia’s most famous natural landmark has two names – Uluru and Ayers Rock. So which one is correct? The rock was called Uluru a long time before Europeans arrived in Australia. The word is a proper noun from the Pitjantjatjara language and doesn’t have an English translation. In 1873, the explorer William Gosse became the first non-Aboriginal person to see Uluru. He named it Ayers Rock after Sir Henry Ayers, the Chief Secretary of South Australia at the time. Ayers Rock was the most widely used name until 1993, when the rock was officially renamed Ayers Rock / Uluru – the first feature in the Northern Territory to be given dual names. In 2002 these names were reversed at the request of the Regional Tourism Association in Alice Springs and the rock took on the official name of Uluru / Ayers Rock, which it still has today. That means you can use either Uluru or Ayers Rock to refer to the rock. However, in the national park we always use the original name: Uluru.

Because a city often takes its name from the land it is built on. This may be a geographical feature or a historic name that may be from Western history or pre-colonisation history. I used to own a property near the village of Mongarlowe near Mount Budawang. These are both pre white settlement names. Is this a problem?

Not only a talented musician but a thoroughly decent guy. "In the 1950s, Tony Bennett watched with dismay as Black musicians like Nat King Cole and Duke Ellington were denied admission to concert hall dining rooms and hotels. The injustice he witnessed infuriated the young singer. "I'd never been politically inclined, but these things went beyond politics," Bennett wrote in "The Good Life," his 1998 autobiography. "Nate and Duke were geniuses, brilliant human beings who gave the world some of the most beautiful music it's ever heard, and yet they were treated like second-class citizens. The whole situation enraged me." Tony Bennett, enraged by racism, championed civil rights alongside MLK

As they say, "You can kiss a nun once, you can kiss a nun twice but, you can't get into the habit

gee Spacey you make Sydney sound terrible. Glad I live in Victoria