I'm ba-ack!!! - and with thoughts on Stephen Fry and papal infallibility
Back at last. I have to admit, I was beginning to think the only solution was a new PC, but thanks to some techno-assistance, I'm back online.
Of course, my PC had to be totally rebuilt, but fortunately, I'd done a full back up of all my files just a week before, so now it's just a matter of reinstating everything. Of course, there were a few widgets that I've lost along the way, but most of those I can find again, hopefully. (Lovely little things like zapgrab that I can no longer imagine life without.)
So ,...
Went to see Stephen Fry yesterday in the live version of QI. For those who aren't familiar with QI - it's a sort of quiz show - except that points are awarded more on the basis of answers being interesting than exactly right, and points lost for boring answers. And if an answer is both boring and wrong - kapow! major points loss.
I love it. It's a show that kind of meanders through all sorts of interesting and out of the way facts - whether about the planet we live on or the animals we share it with or the solar system we all inhabit.
On of the things that emerged in yesterday's "episode" was that according to the Vatican - beavers are fish, not mammals. And not only beavers - all kinds of things - musk rats, I remember were mentioned and a batch of others. Seems like they were trying to find things that Catholics could eat on a Friday without breaking the 'no meat' rule, and their solution was to classify things like beavers as "fish". Now, I can understand that if you're in the middle of a desert with no rivers or lakes, let alone oceans, then finding fish to eat on Friday might be tricky. But hello! if there are beavers, there are damned well going to be fish. Otherwise the beavers would all starve to death. So how they justify that one even to themselves is anybody's guess.
So much for papal infallibility. The beaver thing alone pretty much blows that out of the water, one would think.
The other thing that he came out with which I loved came as a result of the question 'which is the most deadly creature in Australia?' (As it turns out, if you exclude humans and if 'deadly' is defined as causing the most deaths, it's the horse. Many many more people die from horse-related accidents every year than are killed by spiders, snakes, sharks and crocodiles combined.)
Anyway, when the question was asked, someone in the audience shouted out 'Tony Abbott' - referring to the bigoted, right wing leader of the Opposition in Australia.
Big laugh, including from Stephen, who then went on to talk about having heard dear old Tony expressing his usual homophobic load of bullshit, ending with the predictable "it's not natural".
Stephen then observed that there have been recorded instances of homosexual behaviour, ranging from "just shagging" to lifelong mating, observed in over 450 different species of animals, birds and insects.
But that only one species in the whole of the natural world has exhibited homophobic behaviour.
He then posed the open question to the Tony Abbott's of this world: "What's unnatural, now, Mr. Abbott?"
Have I mentioned how much I love Stephen Fry?
Of course, my PC had to be totally rebuilt, but fortunately, I'd done a full back up of all my files just a week before, so now it's just a matter of reinstating everything. Of course, there were a few widgets that I've lost along the way, but most of those I can find again, hopefully. (Lovely little things like zapgrab that I can no longer imagine life without.)
So ,...
Went to see Stephen Fry yesterday in the live version of QI. For those who aren't familiar with QI - it's a sort of quiz show - except that points are awarded more on the basis of answers being interesting than exactly right, and points lost for boring answers. And if an answer is both boring and wrong - kapow! major points loss.
I love it. It's a show that kind of meanders through all sorts of interesting and out of the way facts - whether about the planet we live on or the animals we share it with or the solar system we all inhabit.
On of the things that emerged in yesterday's "episode" was that according to the Vatican - beavers are fish, not mammals. And not only beavers - all kinds of things - musk rats, I remember were mentioned and a batch of others. Seems like they were trying to find things that Catholics could eat on a Friday without breaking the 'no meat' rule, and their solution was to classify things like beavers as "fish". Now, I can understand that if you're in the middle of a desert with no rivers or lakes, let alone oceans, then finding fish to eat on Friday might be tricky. But hello! if there are beavers, there are damned well going to be fish. Otherwise the beavers would all starve to death. So how they justify that one even to themselves is anybody's guess.
So much for papal infallibility. The beaver thing alone pretty much blows that out of the water, one would think.
The other thing that he came out with which I loved came as a result of the question 'which is the most deadly creature in Australia?' (As it turns out, if you exclude humans and if 'deadly' is defined as causing the most deaths, it's the horse. Many many more people die from horse-related accidents every year than are killed by spiders, snakes, sharks and crocodiles combined.)
Anyway, when the question was asked, someone in the audience shouted out 'Tony Abbott' - referring to the bigoted, right wing leader of the Opposition in Australia.
Big laugh, including from Stephen, who then went on to talk about having heard dear old Tony expressing his usual homophobic load of bullshit, ending with the predictable "it's not natural".
Stephen then observed that there have been recorded instances of homosexual behaviour, ranging from "just shagging" to lifelong mating, observed in over 450 different species of animals, birds and insects.
But that only one species in the whole of the natural world has exhibited homophobic behaviour.
He then posed the open question to the Tony Abbott's of this world: "What's unnatural, now, Mr. Abbott?"
Have I mentioned how much I love Stephen Fry?