No First Communion For Boy With Down’s Syndrome – An Atheists View

Posted on January 22, 2012 by James

I awoke on Friday morning to a BBC news broadcast (I use my TV as an alarm as it frustrates me in to leaving my room) about a young boy, Denum, with Down’s Syndrome who was refused his First Holy Communion on the grounds that he was ill prepared to undertake the ceremony. This left me with an odd feeling – for once in my adult life I agreed with the Catholic Church. Here’s what the Diocese of Leeds had to say:

While he [Denum] is unable to make preparations this year to the first sacrament he may be able to do in the future when his understanding is better placed.

It would seem to be that the Diocese of Leeds believes that Denum lacks an understanding of what the First Communion involves and what it means with regards to him joining the Church willingly as an adult – or confirming his belief in the Catholic version of God, if you prefer.
The point may seem rather moot, and it is indeed quite hypocritical, as children are indoctrinated into the Church near enough as soon as they’re born. Asking if they give themselves willingly over to Christ at such a tender age, when the mind is so easily swayed to believe in falsehoods, is really no contest. The brainwashed child will not understand that there is no need for them to give themselves over to the cult.

My point is this: a child raised to believe in God will do as their elders tell them and believe in God without any understanding of what the implications are.

I had my First Communion at age 10 – the normal age was 8 but it can vary from 7 to 14 – and I didn’t have a clue. I was told I believed in God, so I thought I believed in God. My mind was too young, I was too interested in kiss-chase and digging worms out of the mud to apply any thought to what it meant to confirm my allegiance to Catholocism.
Religions must come to realise that such a young and malleable mind, retarded or otherwise, cannot possibly understand the contract they are entering.

But I am being naive. Of course the Church knows that 8 is too young an age to understand what’s going on. That’s really why First Communion is held at such a young age. Get ‘em young, like the tobacco industry.

I’m glad Denum has been refused the First Communion. I wish the age for the process was raised to 19 or 20. The Bible is a complicated, controversial, nonsensical,  contradictory text and a person should really know what they’re doing when getting in to bed with one of the largest corrupting organisations in the world.

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Safely Log In To Google Using a QR Code

Posted on January 16, 2012 by James

We’ve all wandered into a seemingly less than reputable Internet cafe and dreaded that moment where we’ve had to enter our email password – which coincidentally we use for everything else – on that strangely sticky keyboard whilst sitting on the half-broken office chair.
The thing some of us might be concerned about is known as a keylogger.

Keyloggers are small programmes that record every key you press on that filthy keyboard. This includes your secret, but well worn, password.
Fortunately Google has come up with a nifty way of getting around this by finally finding a good use for QR codes.

QR Code

One of the lesser known QR codes.

All you’ll need is a barcode reader on your smartphone. Open http://accounts.google.com/sesame on the painfully slow Internet cafe machine then scan the QR code that appears on the screen. Log in to your account on your phone and wait for the browser to redirect you to your account. Shazam, simple as that.

QR code courtesy of http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
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Deploy a Specific Mercurial Branch with Capistrano

Posted on December 1, 2011 by James

This is mostly a reminder for me as I couldn’t find an example online (I have notoriously bad Google-Fu) about deploying a different branch to the one you have set in your Capistrano deploy.rb file.

The command is very simple:

cap -s branch=branch_name deploy

I wanted to deploy to a staging environment so I did:

cap -s branch=branch_name staging deploy

It really is as simple as that.

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Referees To Undergo Teacher Training

Posted on November 2, 2011 by James

The English Football Association recently announced that all its 28,000 referees will undergo the same kind of behaviour management training that teachers in the UK currently go through in order to learn how to deal with misbehaving children.

In a move that has been questioned openly by the Premier League the FA will begin budgeting for “group behavioural management classes”, classes that are more often associated with the training teachers go through.
On Wednesday morning a Premier League spokesperson said, “There is a certain drama in the game that fans have come to expect. If you get referees trying to manage the behaviour, the dramatic flare of some players, then you are harming the game. We will see fewer free kicks, penalties and cards. This will cause grief for the top flight clubs who depend on their players winning decisions in crucial areas.”

The FA however says that the course is necessary because of the amount of cheating and diving in modern football, “Players go down under the lightest of touches; when they do go down and don’t get the decision they want they act out. We are simply providing our officials with the skills needed to control such petulant players.”
When asked if they had considered any alternatives the FA spokesman, perhaps jocularly, said, “Yes. We did initially look into forcing clubs to send their problem players to group therapy sessions and designing some kind of course which would see them become accustomed to the physical demands of football. However, there were some concerns voiced by the top Premier League managers so we dropped the idea.”

The courses will begin in the interim between the end of this season and the beginning of the next and will cost the FA an estimated £3.5 million. UEFA, the European football association, have stated that they will contribute to some of the cost and will monitor progress in the English leagues, “We will cover some of the costs as part of our partnership with the FA and other football associations in Europe. We too are concerned that players have lost some physical and moral qualities; spending as much time as they do writhing on the ground only to be quickly up on their feet after the decision is given in their favour.”

Opinion is split in the stands but one man, sat with his children at a recent Fulham home game, which saw them dominate their West London rivals, QPR, 6 – 0 said, “I feel ashamed when I bring my children to watch what should be a game played by gentleman and the players are spending half the time falling over or holding their allegedly sore ankle. It’s a joke.”

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TfL Launch Mobile Bus Timetable Site

Posted on October 17, 2011 by James

Gone, gone are the days of standing out in the cold wondering when your bus will come. Now, if you own a phone that can access the Internet, you can stand out in the cold and know precisely when your bus will arrive by checking TfLs mobile bus countdown website. Of course you can also loiter in the nearest KentuckyFriedMcNeroStar until it’s time to go but we all know the weather builds character. A bitter, resentful, angry character that can in some, extreme, instances lead to lunacy and the constant need to lie.

I tested out the site today and the information seems complete and up-to-date which is hardly surprising as it comes from the GPS data transmitted by the buses themselves.

For those of you fortunate enough to have an Android device I highly recommend the Buscount application found here.
I’m sure there must be an iPhone equivalent so if anyone can provide a link I’ll put it up here.
Update: Laura Quinn points out that iPhone users may make use of the Next Buses app.

And to those of you without access to an application, well you can just point your phone’s browser to http://m.countdown.tfl.gov.uk/, search for either a bus stop near you or at a desired location then bookmark the page you need.

This is a long awaited functionality from TfL – they’ve had an equivalent in Edinburgh for a while now (at least 3 years I think) – and I look forward to TfL opening up access to even more of its data in the near future.

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Homeopathy and Greg Hands. A Response

Posted on September 17, 2011 by James

I recently received a reply from Greg Hands, the MP for Chelsea and Fulham, regarding a letter I wrote to him questioning his stance on homeopathy in the NHS. The response contains little in the way of answers to my questions – he is after all a career politician – and can be seen here.

If you are as moved and bewildered by homeopathy being available on the NHS then send a letter to your MP using WriteToThem. The nonsense must cease.

Dear Mr Hands,

Thank you for your swift reply to something that you view as such an old issue. There are some clever quotes expressing the relevance of the past with respect to the present but I’m sure you know them well enough without me repeating one. I will however say that you should find in politics that it is quite common for one to be questioned on one’s past mistakes. Which was part of the reason for my original letter to you.

Now then, whilst EDM 1240 does not seem all that important by itself, expressing support for homeopathy on the NHS set a precedence which allowed, and continues to allow, others such as David Tredinnick to peddle nonsense within the walls of Westminster. His recent talk of touch therapy was particularly shocking and amusing.

Consider that homeopathy has been proven several times over to be no more effective than a placebo. Consider also other offerings that are similarly ineffective: prayer, healing crystals, reiki, magnet therapy and anything sold as a Traditional Chinese Medicine. Would you allow a loved one to use such treatments? Any answer other than no is ludicrous. You are giving your support to something that is being sold as a HIV cure on the African continent. You are giving your support to what amounts to murder.

You say the Government’s wider policy with the NHS is to devolve responsibility to those on the frontlines, yet only this week a bill was passed without full support from the RCN, RCP or RCGP. You will only listen when you hear the words that best please you. This is exactly the time action needs to be taken to remove homeopathy from the NHS. Austerity measures are in force and money can no longer be wasted on pointless pills.

As for patient choice we really must consider what we mean when we say that. Patient choice is very important on the NHS. Some patients fear injections, some patients  believe green pills work better for them. The point with choosing between an injection or a pill is that, whilst their efficacy may not always be equal, they are effective and they are real treatments, not sham medicinals.

With the end of this letter I ask you 2 simple questions:
1) Will you allow yourself and your loved ones to be treated by homeopathic treatments alone until such time as you agree to their removal from the NHS?
2) If you will not be treated by homeopathy alone will you take a stand against it and move to remove homeopathy as a service on the NHS, using money that would have been wasted to fund more doctors and nurses?

Yours sincerely,
James Smith

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Bootstrap CSS Framework and a Sticky Footer

Posted on September 1, 2011 by James

Bootstrap, brought to you buy the guys at Twitter, is a very cool CSS framework that gives you access to some sleek looking buttons, form items, navigation bars and many, many other things.

It’s designed around the grid-layout principle but very easily allows for liquid-layouts. I definitely recommend giving Bootstrap a try.

One thing it didn’t have, that I needed, is a nav bar that sticks to the bottom of a page. Fortunately it’s very easy to take the topbar and make it a bottombar. The CSS is included below.

/*!
 * Bootstrap v1.2.0
 *
 * Copyright 2011 Twitter, Inc
 * Licensed under the Apache License v2.0
 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Designed and built with all the love in the world @twitter by @mdo and @fat.
 * Date: Fri Sep  9 20:48:32 PDT 2011
 */
/* Reset.less
 * Props to Eric Meyer (meyerweb.com) for his CSS reset file. We're using an adapted version here	that cuts out some of the reset HTML elements we will never need here (i.e., dfn, samp, etc).
 * ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
.bottombar {
  height: 40px;
  position: fixed;
  bottom: 0;
  left: 0;
  right: 0;
  z-index: 10000;
  overflow: visible;
}
.bottombar .fill {
  background: #222;
  background-color: #222222;
  background-repeat: repeat-x;
  background-image: -khtml-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#333333), to(#222222));
  background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #333333, #222222);
  background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #333333, #222222);
  background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%, #333333), color-stop(100%, #222222));
  background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #333333, #222222);
  background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #333333, #222222);
  background-image: linear-gradient(top, #333333, #222222);
  -webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.25), inset 0 -1px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);
  -moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.25), inset 0 -1px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);
  box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.25), inset 0 -1px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);
}
.bottombar a {
  color: #bfbfbf;
  text-shadow: 0 -1px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.25);
}
.bottombar a:hover, .bottombar ul li.active a {
  background-color: #333;
  background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.05);
  color: #ffffff;
  text-decoration: none;
}
.bottombar h3 {
  position: relative;
}
.bottombar h3 a {
  float: left;
  display: block;
  padding: 8px 20px 12px;
  margin-left: -20px;
  color: #ffffff;
  font-size: 20px;
  font-weight: 200;
  line-height: 1;
}
.bottombar form {
  float: left;
  margin: 5px 0 0 0;
  position: relative;
  filter: alpha(opacity=100);
  -khtml-opacity: 1;
  -moz-opacity: 1;
  opacity: 1;
}
.bottombar form input {
  background-color: #444;
  background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.3);
  font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
  font-size: normal;
  font-weight: 13px;
  line-height: 1;
  width: 220px;
  padding: 4px 9px;
  color: #fff;
  color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.75);
  border: 1px solid #111;
  -webkit-border-radius: 4px;
  -moz-border-radius: 4px;
  border-radius: 4px;
  -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1), 0 1px 0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.25);
  -moz-box-shadow: inset 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1), 0 1px 0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.25);
  box-shadow: inset 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1), 0 1px 0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.25);
  -webkit-transition: none;
  -moz-transition: none;
  transition: none;
}
.bottombar form input:-moz-placeholder {
  color: #e6e6e6;
}
.bottombar form input::-webkit-input-placeholder {
  color: #e6e6e6;
}
.bottombar form input:hover {
  background-color: #bfbfbf;
  background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.5);
  color: #fff;
}
.bottombar form input:focus, .bottombar form input.focused {
  outline: none;
  background-color: #fff;
  color: #404040;
  text-shadow: 0 1px 0 #fff;
  border: 0;
  padding: 5px 10px;
  -webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15);
  -moz-box-shadow: 0 0 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15);
  box-shadow: 0 0 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15);
}
.bottombar ul {
  display: block;
  float: left;
  margin: 0 10px 0 0;
  position: relative;
}
.bottombar ul.secondary-nav {
  float: right;
  margin-left: 10px;
  margin-right: 0;
}
.bottombar ul li {
  display: block;
  float: left;
  font-size: 13px;
}
.bottombar ul li a {
  display: block;
  float: none;
  padding: 10px 10px 11px;
  line-height: 19px;
  text-decoration: none;
}
.bottombar ul li a:hover {
  color: #fff;
  text-decoration: none;
}
.bottombar ul li.active a {
  background-color: #222;
  background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
}
.bottombar ul.primary-nav li ul {
  left: 0;
}
.bottombar ul.secondary-nav li ul {
  right: 0;
}
.bottombar ul li.menu {
  position: relative;
}
.bottombar ul li.menu a.menu:after {
  width: 0px;
  height: 0px;
  display: inline-block;
  content: "↑";
  text-indent: -99999px;
  vertical-align: top;
  margin-top: 8px;
  margin-left: 4px;
  border-left: 4px solid transparent;
  border-right: 4px solid transparent;
  border-top: 4px solid #fff;
  filter: alpha(opacity=50);
  -khtml-opacity: 0.5;
  -moz-opacity: 0.5;
  opacity: 0.5;
}
.bottombar ul li.menu.open a.menu, .bottombar ul li.menu.open a:hover {
  background-color: #444;
  background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.1);
  *background-color: #444;
  /* IE6-7 */

  color: #fff;
}
.bottombar ul li.menu.open ul {
  display: block;
}
.bottombar ul li.menu.open ul li a {
  background-color: transparent;
  font-weight: normal;
}
.bottombar ul li.menu.open ul li a:hover {
  background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.1);
  *background-color: #444;
  /* IE6-7 */

  color: #fff;
}
.bottombar ul li.menu.open ul li.active a {
  background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.1);
  font-weight: bold;
}
.bottombar ul li ul {
  background-color: #333;
  float: left;
  display: none;
  position: absolute;
  bottom: 40px;
  min-width: 160px;
  max-width: 220px;
  _width: 160px;
  margin-left: 0;
  margin-right: 0;
  padding: 0;
  text-align: left;
  border: 0;
  zoom: 1;
  -webkit-border-radius: 5px 5px 0 0;
  -moz-border-radius: 5px 5px 0 0;
  border-radius: 5px 5px 0 0;

  -webkit-box-shadow: 0 -1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);
  -moz-box-shadow: 0 -1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);
  box-shadow: 0 -1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);
}
.bottombar ul li ul li {
  float: none;
  clear: both;
  display: block;
  background: none;
  font-size: 12px;
}
.bottombar ul li ul li a {
  display: block;
  padding: 6px 15px;
  clear: both;
  font-weight: normal;
  line-height: 19px;
  color: #bbb;
}
.bottombar ul li ul li a:hover {
  background-color: #333;
  background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.25);
  color: #fff;
}
.bottombar ul li ul li.divider {
  height: 1px;
  overflow: hidden;
  background: #222;
  background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
  border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.1);
  margin: 5px 0;
}
.bottombar ul li ul li span {
  clear: both;
  display: block;
  background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
  padding: 6px 15px;
  cursor: default;
  color: #808080;
  border-top: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
}
Posted in Bootstrap, CSS | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Open Letter to Greg Hands

Posted on August 31, 2011 by James

Update: Scroll down for the reply from Greg Hands.

Dear Mr Hands,

In 2007 you were a signatory to EDM 1240, effectively promoting the continued use and dissemination of useless interventions and poor medical advice.

Given the recent trend in the NHS to move away from homeopathy and the ever-rising mountain of strong, scientific evidence pointing to homeopathy’s uselessness as a genuine medical treatment do you accept that it was wrong of you to declare your support for a placebo treatment which has been shown in the past to do harm to patients who fall under its spell?

Further, will you stand up in the House of Commons and question the validity of the continued funding of homeopathy on the NHS when it would be better to move funding toward allowing doctor’s to spend more time consulting their patients so that the placebo effect experienced in a homeopathic consultation can be a part of a genuine medical treatment?

I implore you to consider the negative effects phoney alternative treatments are having on the minds and bodies of the people of Britain. These multi-billion pound industries only serve to undermine good, solid, scientific medical advice that so many of our great researchers have strived to discover.

Finally, will you bring to light for all your constituents and every critical thinking person in Britain the e-petition calling for a parliamentary discussion on removing NHS funding for homeopathy?

A concerned constituent,
James Smith.

Update

On the 8th September I received a reply from Greg Hands which I have copied below.

Dear Mr Smith,

Thank you for your letter dated 31 August 2011 about expired EDM 1240 (2006-07 session), which I signed on 16 June 2007. I am not sure why you have waited more than four years to ask about this; for the purpose of symmetry, perhaps it is appropriate to delay a more exhaustive response until November 2015.

Anne Milton, the Public Health Minister, has made clear that decisions on homeopathic treatments are a matter for professionals in the NHS, not the Government. As she recently stated:

‘It is the responsibility of local national health service organisations to make decisions on the commissioning and funding of such treatments, taking account of issues to do with safety, clinical and cost effectiveness and the availability of suitably qualified/regulated practitioners.’

This is in keeping with the Government’s wider policy of devolving responsibility in the NHS to those on the frontline, which presents a substantially altered context within the health service to that of 2007.

Nevertheless, it is good to be reminded occasionally of matters historical.

Yours sincerely,
Greg Hands

Posted in Politics, Science | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Bad Opinion Generator

Posted on August 31, 2011 by James

A laugh provided by the people over at The Week.

The popup will show you some of histories most ridiculous predictions and opinions: http://theweek.com/article/index/218150/bad-opinion-generator#

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Show All Results With The will_paginate Gem

Posted on August 25, 2011 by James

A partial solution to getting will_paginate to show all the results on the one page.

I chose to stick the link that will cause all the results to be displayed inside the pagination menu using jQuery.
This should go in your view

// Create the link
var show_all_link = ' @matches.size, :page => 1), :class => "show-all" %>';
$('a.next_page, span.next_page').after(show_all_link); // Place the link after the next page link

And this in your controller

per_page = params[:show] || 50 # How many items to display
@paginated_matches = @matches.paginate(:page => params[:page], :per_page => per_page)

I say it’s only a partial solution because will_paginate will not display the pagination menu when displaying all results like this. If I come up with a workaround or a better solution I’ll post it here, but if any of you guys have any success stick it in the comments and I’ll edit the post appropriately.

James.

Posted in jQuery, Ruby on Rails, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment