Random ramblings and ravings of Richy B
![[Santa]](https://blog.rac.me.uk/photos/santa.jpg)
Yippee! I’ve just been sent a couple more Christmas jokes – “The 3 Stages of Man” and “Twas The Day After Christmas” (I also blogged about the Internet Night Before Christmas).
The 3 Stages of Man
He believes in Santa Claus.
He doesn’t believe in Santa Claus.
He is Santa Claus.
![[Clone]](https://blog.rac.me.uk/photos/clone.jpg)
Looking at various news sources (I first read about it via Tracy‘s blog, but it’s now been covered by CNN, the BBC, CTV.ca, ABC News, The Independent, MSNBC, Ananova and many other news services), it appears Clonaid has been the first organisation to clone a human being. They’ve named the little girl which was born on Boxing Day to a 31 year old American woman “Eve”.
Whilst there has yet to be any scientific evidence presented by Clonaid (they say DNA evidence will be available in 8 to 9 days time and according to the CNN article, there will be strict 3rd party evaluation of the evidence), there is a large amount of controversy about this claim. It goes further than the normal ‘Is cloning right?‘ moral issues… It appears the company has very strong links to a cult religious group called the “Raelians” (indeed, the scientific director of Clonaid – Brigitte Boisselier – is a “bishop” in the group).
The Raelians believe their spiritual leader is a direct descendant of the aliens that created life on Earth through genetic engineering. This spiritual leader is the former French journalist Claude Vorilhon (who now calls himself Rael) who also wrote the books “Messages given to Me by Extra-Terrestrials“, “Yes to Human Cloning: Immortality Thanks to Science“, “Lets Welcome the Extra Terrestrials” – may I just remind readers of a slightly similarity with the founder of Scientology – L. Ron Hubbard – who was also an author/writer (and, it appears, the Raelians also have ‘ties’ with the CoS).
Whilst I’m waiting for true scientific evidence to emerge before making a decision on this issue, I’ve already put the salt on standby (i.e. I’m taking this with a large pinch of salt/I have large doubts about this). Religious “cults” have not exactly had a good track record for telling the truth, plus the likely hood of the Raelian‘s coming from practically ‘nothing’ to producing a fully fledged human clone seems unlikely to me (considering a large number of other companies have been working on the same thing and have not yet achieved success)…
![[Present]](https://blog.rac.me.uk/archives/present.jpg)
Here’s a little festive joke I’ve received:
Two little boys were staying with their grandparents. While kneeling to say their bedtime prayers the smallest boy began yelling his prayer at the top of his lungs:
“DEAR GOD, FOR CHRISTMAS I WOULD LIKE A PLAYSTATION, A MOTOR BIKE, SCOOTER, NEW VIDEO GAMES…”
His brother asked him, “Why are you yelling? God can hear you; He is not deaf.”
The younger brother replied, “I know God is not deaf, but grandma is…”
![[Batman Beyond]](https://blog.rac.me.uk/photos/batmanbeyond.jpg)
Thanks to Firda over at WannabeGirl, I’ve been playing the Macromedia Shockwave game “Batman Beyond: Evolution of Evil game. Using the arrow keys, CTRL, SHIFT and the Spacebar, you control Batman. Initially, you’ve got to guide him past some rats in a hotel to collect your communicator, bat-belt, pieces of a journal and a key.
Once you’ve got the hang of the controls, figured out that things are hidden beneath barrels, fire-extinguishers and moving robots, and that you don’t have to use the elevators/lifts to move up and down a level – it can be quite easy. Everything is in the ‘same place’ if you need to restart the level and a little trick is to try and collect all the pieces before lots of Dr.Cavier’s henchmen come out to inflict pain upon you.
Unlike Firda, I managed to finish the entire game (and, for the benefit of everyone, I’ve compiled a list of passwords) – and all the advice I’m willing to give is “Don’t attempt to hit Dr.Cavier yourself…”
*snippet* I’ve just come back from spending around 40 hours at my parents (that’s the reason why I was unable to wish everyone that reads this “Merry Christmas” – sorry!) and I’ve got over 1060 emails waiting for me. Most of it appears to be spam but I am definitely gnashing my teeth…