old man emu

I thought Willie Nelson cut his teeth on a $5 secondhand guitar.

Iran is often grouped with Arab nations, but it is not an Arab country. Its people are largely Persian. The Persian civilization, originating in modern-day Iran, was a dominant ancient superpower (c. 550 B.C.E. – 651 C.E.) renowned for vast territorial expansion under the Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sasanian dynasties. Founded by Cyrus the Great, it was known for its bureaucratic efficiency, infrastructure like the Royal Road, religious tolerance, and cultural influence across Asia and the Middle East. The Persian Empire is the name given to a series of dynasties centered in modern-day Iran that spanned several centuries—from the sixth century B.C. to the 20th century A.D. In other words, the Iranians are not towel-heads.

A churchgoer, by definition, believes in a deity. Therefore would look for the lesson from the deity that particular story is meant to give. A non-churchgoer who, by definition, does not beleive in a deity, can look at the story as a record of some event. Let's look at two stories from the Bible - The Flood, and David -v- Goliath. The Flood story has its roots in the history of the civilistations of Mesopotamia. The story existed long before the Hebrews became a distinct group. For people of our times, the idea of a global flood, and a vessel big enough to carry pairs of each type of animal is absurd, based on our knowledge of the diversity of lifeforms, and the lack of a planetwide sediment layer that would have formed as a result of flooding. However, the story originated amongst peoples of major river systems, so it is quite possible that some time in the distant past, not more than 12,000 years ago, there was an extreme flooding event in that part of the World. The religions of that part of the world which rely on anthropomorphic deities seem to have originated in that early post-Ice Age period. So the Flood story has been absorbed by the Hebrews and then the influences of a deity have been added in. David - Goliath is probably an actual event that has had the influences of a deity added. We of the modern Western World do not have much knowledge of David's weapon, the sling. But go to the Middle East and you will find young lads who can use the sling with deadly accuracy. In fact, in the Ancient World, including the Romans, the sling was an important weapon in battles. Think of it as the machine gun of its time. Then we have Goliath. It has been suggested that Goliath suffered from Gigantism. One of the effects of it is poor peripheral vision. There is a line in the Bible which quotes Goliath saying something that suggests poor eyesight. The combination of David's skill with teh sling, and Goliath's poor vision which would lead to inaccurate movement, means that David was odds-on to win. No involvement of a deity, but we all know that teh victors get to write the history.

We don't have much in the way of records of most ancient civilisations. Time and circumstance have destroyed most of the records of the Past. Nomadpete kicked off this current discussion by asking Question - is Scripture teaching fact? What "fact" are we discussing? Is it the "fact" that the Scripture is the unadulterated word of a deity? Is it a record of the history of a specific group of people?

If one does not profess a belief in the deity described in what we call "The Bible", one can reasonably describe the Bible a compendium of the Hebrew culture. A compendium is a comprehensive collection of something. One can also use the word compendium to describe a collection of written works. If one gathers all of the anecdotes, rules for religious practice and religious songs of the Hebrew faith one will have created a compendium of the Hebrew culture. The historical anecdotes as presented most likely are embellishments of actual events, with the embellishments aimed at indicating the influence of the deity on the outcome of the event. This is commoon. Consider the acceptance of Christianity by the Roman Emperor, Constantine. This is supposed to have resulted from his seeing a cross in the sky in association with his winning a battle. The vision was interpreted as being the helping hand of teh deity.

I accede. I'm not an expert on the complexities of US law. But the message sent out by critics has suggested that permission is needed before action is taken. Obviously that is not the case. The problem with the culture of the USAis that it is militaristic. It seem to me that teh World's Policeman has finally gone rogue.

What are the dimensions of a foxhole?

Yes; No, and Maybe. The first thing to acknowledge is that the ancient Hebrews were nomadic sheep herders. Their culture would have been a simple one which one could fairly equate to cultures like Aborigines, Indigenous Americans (North and South continents). Their religeous philosophy was without doubt an amalgam of those of the more advanced Mesopotamian cultures. In fact, if one compares the Biblical stories of creation with the creation stories of those advanced cultures, one can imagine that a lot of cut and paste took place. So, in respect of religious philosophies, one could conclude that the Scritpture is not factual. Then we move onto the historical content of the Scriptures. Many accounts in the Scripture relate to events which the Hebrews lived through. In recent times, the application of scientific principles in the area of archeology has produced physical and documentary evidence of a lot of the accounts in the Scripture. One can frequently see from that evidence that events did in fact occur, but their causes were misinterpreted by a people whose scientific knowledge of the forces of Nature was not as correct s ours. Therefore, with the recounting of evetns over generations, the fact were coated with additions that made the story more exciting, but still contained a kernel of truth. That is a common thing in cultures that do not have a written literature. I am pretty sure that I have experienced that in a story of the Aborigines of the Wollongong area of NSW. The story explains how some small islands just off the coast came to be. Basically they are supposed to be canoes that some people stole and saild to the Wollongong coast from the east. It is easy to think that the kernel of truth in this story is the inundation of the Eastern Australian coastal plains after the end of the last Ice Age about 12,000 years ago. Aborigines living futher to teh east may well have been forced westwards by rising sea levels flodding those plains. So, are the Scriptures historically factual? Maybe, but there is a lot of padding around the kernel of truth. So what about the Scriptures being the Word of God? They are definitely a blueprint for living a life in a community. All the leaders of the community, those with the power to rule the lives of others, have to do to ensure the masses comply is to set up a system where compliance with the dictates of the rulers means a trouble-free life for the individual. First invent an all-powerful deity whose commands are relayed by the powerful in the group. Then dress the system with ceremony and was to express praise to this deity. After that create a set of rules which have to be followed both to appease the deity and to separate the followers of the deity from non-followers. So, are the Scriptures a statement of religious fact? Yes, if the facts relate to the rules of the particular religion, but NO if one does not believe in the existence of a deity. Are the religous facts of the Scriptures of any use to a non-believer? If a non-believer accepts that rules for social cohesion arising from the Sriptures are sensible and useful to lead a trouble-free life, then the Scripture are of use.

A couple of things. 1. Who supplied Iran with the ballistic missiles? 2. If you have seen any vision of teh people of Iran celebrating in the streets over the weekend, did you notice that there were no women to be seen?

It used to be that the POTUS had to seek the approval of Congress before declaring war. But that was back in the day when the USA was a democracy.

Like any human invention, there is both good and bad with AI. I think that the problem in understanding that fact is that the majority of us have no idea about thois good and bad points, and as usual, the meeja plays up the bad.

I live on the highway that runs to Warren. From my front gate it is about 70 kms away. Warren is on the Macquaie River. Although the Macquarie River doesn't have the deep gouge in the landscape that we associate with a "valley", the rain clouds seem to follow its course and that means it diverts away from my place. I drove into Dubbo yesterday for shopping. Dubbo is about 60 kms south from Gilgandra. As I got to about 20 kms from Dubbo I noticed that the paddocks were greening up. About 25 kms south of Gilgandra there seems to be a boundary between the catchments of the Macquarie and Castlereagh Rivers. This seems to split the path of storms. The radar often shows the storm cells tracking to the south of this divide, so the storms avoid the Castlereagh catchment. Since farming around here involves the growing of winter grain crops, most of the ground cover in summer is just dried standing straw. About the only greenery is the grass at the edge of the road that has been watered by the run off from small storms.

Perfect action to ensure the winning of a Nobel Peace prize.

There is a lot of confusion about what AI is, and how it can be used. Here is an image that identifies the three types of AI:

The bore water at my place must be very low in minerals. It does not leave crusts on the end of taps and seems to lather satisfactoritly. It may not actually be bore water, but just creek water since the bore is not too far from a major creek.

The only thing that I will no like if the rains come in strength is that I won't be able to dry my laundry. There hasn't been any decent general rain here since last April. Several small yards around my house are devoid of vegetation. My sister is hand feeding a couple of horses that she is keeping arded up because of founder in their feet. Fortunately I have access to bore water for domestic use and tankwater for drinking, but the fact that there hasn't been worthwhile rain for so long, coupled with this Summer's extreme heat and constant strong winds plays havoc with one's mental state.

This has been what the rainfall prediction image has been for a few days. Notice the bare patch in the centre of NSW. That's where I live. Everyone is getting more rain than they want except me.

Back in the day this was called hitchhiking.

I hate you with hulking hunks of horrible hate. All I'm getting is strong wind. And I haven't had a baked been for a week.

I live in the Orana Region NSW. Over the past four years I have only had one or two blackouts. They were due to thunderstorms. Otherwise, the only power outages I have had have been due to infrastructure upgrades. The power company gave ample forewarning of these outages to allow for making alternative arrangements. And the outages were usually on Sunday.

Talking about building new coal generators. How many billions of dollars would it cost to build the building on a previously undeveloped area of land? Leave out the cost of installing and commsiioning the generating components of a power station.

Before you go off half-cocked, why not consider what people say in response to your initial post. Look at all the factors that are involved in getting an electron to your powerboard. Maybe it's not that we are being ripped off, but that we are being misled about all the costs involed in getting that electron to you.

Each Watt of electricity produced by solar or wind might be cheaper than Watts produced by fossil fuel means BUT it is the upgrading of infrastructure that is being paid for by increase prices per Watt. It isn't really a hoax. It is just that we have never considered the costs involved in maintaining or expanding thee infrastructure. The you have to consdier the costs of employing people and equiping them to do the work. You could say that the 'hoax' comes from only being told part of the truth.

I was watching a video filmed somewhere on the coast of Kent, UK. The site was right on the coast. It was really flat, marshy country. If sea level rose a few metres it would be underwater. Parts of London average an elevation of thirty-six feet above sea level.

It's said that baked beans make you fart. That's only if you don't eat them regularly. If your gut environment is used to them, they are digested like any other high fibre food. Question: Do vegan farts smell different from omnivore farts?