Correlation != causation. The internet may not be causing the increase in atheism. Both are increasing at the same time, but we'd need to do more checks to make sure the two facts are related. Also increasing in the world's population, the average temperature, the number of exoplanets. We could also link the rise of atheism to the decrease in the number of pirates (but that's been done).

Meantime, I suspect it's to do with rise in information availability. People still read books away from the Internet, y'know.

Now, where did I put my copy of 'God is not Great'...

So you're a grammar zealot? (or as we used to say, grammar nazi?)

.. I reckon that any volunteer would need to be carefully assessed to make sure that he's not crazy (defined as follows...) and is doing this for a socially acceptable reason.

Sorry to bring it up, but it was a one-way mission for the zealots who crashed the planes into the two towers, back in 2001. If we want a volunteer for a suicide mission, then we don't want a suicide-bomber sort-of guy, we want a sacrifice-for-the-common-good sort-of guy. Now, how we do find that sort of person, with questions...

OK, kill me, but I don't think that's a good thing. I'm uneducated on several major topics that appear in the newspapers on a daily basis. Example - Syrian Civil War (well, relatively under-informed). My opinion on that is worth less to society then someone who is much more familiar with the situation.

Conversely, I'm an amateur astronomer. Put me in a room with an astrologer and I'll rip him/her to shreds.

I think peoples' options matter, but not equally. An idiot (including myself) with no knowledge on a subject (sex life of the iguana?) has an opinion with a value that is near-zero. And that's just jim-dandy with me.

How big was the dry-cleaning bill?

Calls to mind the story of the young Darwin, who was faced with containing three beetles when he had only two hands. He put the third one in his mouth.

And I tip my hat to your zoologist companion.

Wasn't that ancient Greece? I mean, really. Or did they keep coins in their mouths in the middle ages too?

Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns are now seen as classics? God help us all.

This post is itself a repetition of an earlier post,from GuitarNeophyte. Very 'meta'.

Interesting how you have to go in training ... as a young man I used to enjoy a curry in North London. Worked my way through the vindaloo, through the tindaloo and onto the meat phal (not on the menu). All good for my digestion.

Then I emigrated from London, went to a country where indian food wasn't as widespread. My palate changed, and now, some twenty years later I can't handle much more than a butter chicken.

Regrets? I've had a few. But then again, too few to mention...

There was a 'Air Crash Investigation' show about a crash on a Greek plane (Helios?) where the whole plane wasn't getting oxygen, as someone hadn't flipped the correct switch last maintenance slot. Everyone passed out, last man alive was someone who had some experience of low-pressure work (a diver).

Be interesting to know when the plane was last maintained, what for, what was done, etc.

And my heart goes out to the families, of course. To us, this is academic. To them, it is very real.

Damn! If only the blackbox was in metric!

And seriously, can we talk in SI units here? Newtons, I think.

Hey, them pixels aren't cheap, y'know!

I'm here for you with that one.

Ah, Sinclair Basic. A friend had a box of his. I remember having to press three buttons to get the word "Let" or whatever the BASIC command was. You couldn't just type in the word LET using the Alpha keyboard. And this was the 'Spectrum', speaking from memory. Someone likened pressing the keys on that thing to touching dead flesh. I had to take his word for it.