‘Strainer’ things have happened

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hobie16
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‘Strainer’ things have happened

Post by hobie16 » Tue Jan 07, 2014 9:23 am

‘Strainer’ things have happened
Pomfret councilman sworn in wearing colander
January 3, 2014
By GREG FOX - OBSERVER Staff Writer , The OBSERVER

A unique style of headwear was present during newly-seated Pomfret Town Council member Christopher Schaeffer's oath of office Thursday afternoon, but it wasn't intended to keep his head warm. Schaeffer wore a colander (a strainer typically used to drain water from spaghetti) while Town Clerk Allison Dispense administered the oath of office to him before the board's reorganizational meeting. When the OBSERVER asked afterward why he wore a colander on his head, Schaeffer said he was a minister with an even more unique organization - the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. "It's just a statement about religious freedom," he said. "It's a religion without any dogma."

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A dogma is a set of principles laid down by an authority as truth, such as the doctrine of an organized religion.

Schaeffer directed the OBSERVER to the church's official website for additional information on the topic. According to the website, the church came into the mainstream in 2005. "Our ideal is to scrutinize ideas and actions, but ignore general labels," the website states. "Some claim that the church is purely a thought experiment, satire, illustrating that Intelligent Design is not science, but rather a pseudoscience manufactured by Christians to push Creationism (the doctrine that God created the universe) into public schools. These people are mistaken. The Church of FSM is real, totally legit, and backed by hard science. Anything that comes across as humor or satire is purely coincidental." The group has become an international movement and is widely recognized in the media as poking fun at organized religion. Many followers oppose the teaching of Intelligent Design and Creationism in public schools.

Schaeffer explained a group of church members in Russia, called Pastafarians, were arrested during a parade last summer and charged with organizing an unsanctioned rally because they "offended the Orthodox Church." "Somebody called the cops, and the cops came and arrested them," he added. "Most of us do not believe a religion - Christianity, Islam, Pastafarianism - requires literal belief in order to provide spiritual enlightenment," the church's website states. "That is, we can be part of a community without becoming indoctrinated. There are many levels of belief."

While colanders may or may not reappear in the future on the Pomfret Town Board, Schaeffer said he is committed to working for the residents of the town of Pomfret. "Mostly, I'm just looking forward to making sure that the town is run smoothly and we meet the needs of all of our citizens," he said. "If anybody ever has any concerns or questions, I hope they contact me, because I want to make sure that everyone is represented."


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Re: ‘Strainer’ things have happened

Post by felinefan » Wed Jan 08, 2014 3:11 pm

I think he strained his brain. Science is beginning to catch up with the Bible. The water cycle is mentioned in the Bible, and when scientists were saying the earth was flat, the Bible pointed out that it was round, by saying God stands upon the sphere of the earth. Moreover, they have found genetic material they are calling, however cautiously, an Adam gene and an Eve gene. Yes, they are starting to say we all descended from one man and one woman. And the clerk's name is interesting--Dispense? Bet she got teased a lot in school--or her husband did.
Furthermore, there's mounting proof that carbon-14 dating is unreliable. A group of workers were on a South Pacific , when the volcano on the island erupted, forcing them to flee. One man dropped his Craftsman wrench, and it was partly covered by lava. After it was safe to return, the wrench was found by a group of scientists and somebody, apparently on a lark, tested it and the lava around it (hardened, of course) by the carbon-14 method. The wrench was dated to several million years old, even though that was impossible. There have been other similar cases. There have also been cases of fraud in archaeology, e.g. Lucy. Her knee was found several miles from the rest of her. I don't think she went around dropping body parts until she died.



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Re: ‘Strainer’ things have happened

Post by hobie16 » Wed Jan 08, 2014 6:48 pm

felinefan wrote:The wrench was dated to several million years old, even though that was impossible.
Although the Craftsman wrench had been fabricated within the last 50 years, the material it's made from is millions of years old. Could it have something to do with the Craftsman lifetime guarantee?


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Re: ‘Strainer’ things have happened

Post by YANXWIN » Thu Jan 09, 2014 9:24 am

Only as long as Sears is around. I am beginning to doubt the "lifetime" of my tools, considering that Sears may go the way of the dodo before long.



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Re: ‘Strainer’ things have happened

Post by hobie16 » Thu Jan 09, 2014 9:38 am

YANXWIN wrote:Only as long as Sears is around. I am beginning to doubt the "lifetime" of my tools, considering that Sears may go the way of the dodo before long.
I've been pretty happy with all of my Craftsman tools. In the years I've owned them I've a ratchet fail and a socket split. Both were replaced no questions asked. I also had a torque wrench seize but it turned out to be old grease that had hardened.

I would hope that after little Eddie Lampert has ruined the rest of the Sears/Kmart business that we'll see either stand alone Craftsman stores or they go the Snap-On Tools route and start selling out of a truck.


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Re: ‘Strainer’ things have happened

Post by WEDFan » Thu Jan 09, 2014 9:45 am

felinefan wrote:I think he strained his brain. Science is beginning to catch up with the Bible. The water cycle is mentioned in the Bible, and when scientists were saying the earth was flat, the Bible pointed out that it was round, by saying God stands upon the sphere of the earth. Moreover, they have found genetic material they are calling, however cautiously, an Adam gene and an Eve gene. Yes, they are starting to say we all descended from one man and one woman. And the clerk's name is interesting--Dispense? Bet she got teased a lot in school--or her husband did.
Furthermore, there's mounting proof that carbon-14 dating is unreliable. A group of workers were on a South Pacific , when the volcano on the island erupted, forcing them to flee. One man dropped his Craftsman wrench, and it was partly covered by lava. After it was safe to return, the wrench was found by a group of scientists and somebody, apparently on a lark, tested it and the lava around it (hardened, of course) by the carbon-14 method. The wrench was dated to several million years old, even though that was impossible. There have been other similar cases. There have also been cases of fraud in archaeology, e.g. Lucy. Her knee was found several miles from the rest of her. I don't think she went around dropping body parts until she died.
Mind you, I'm not an atheist, but I feel the need to point out a couple of things.

I'm not sure the Bible says "Sphere of the Earth." If you are referring to Isaiah 40:22 it is more commonly translated as "sitteth upon the circle of the Earth" and refers to the extremes of the Earth in other places. Just like it doesn't say the world is flat, I'm not aware that it says the world is a sphere. As for scientists, they didn't say the world was flat. There were no scientists until the scientific method came into being during the 17th century, and by then they were well aware of the curvature and shape of the Earth.

Also, Carbon-14 testing is for materials that lived within the past approximately 60,000 years, and thus can't be applied to minerals and can't return a result of millions of years, so I don't buy the story about the wrench. There are a number of factors that impact Radiocarbon dating accuracy, but they are pretty well understood and expressed as a confidence factor, and standard notation includes a range for error.

I'm not familiar with the controversy on Lucy, but ask forensic anthropologists today how far removed body parts can be contemporary corpses. Animals and weather scatter parts over gerat distances.

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but science has been unfairly taking a beating over the past years, and in most cases it comes from not really understanding how science and the scientific method work. If we start throwing out some of the basic precepts, then we are left to believe that all of our modern world including medicine only works by the greatest of chance since science's understanding of the foundation is flawed.



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Re: ‘Strainer’ things have happened

Post by hobie16 » Thu Jan 09, 2014 6:19 pm

WEDFan wrote:... but science has been unfairly taking a beating over the past years...
Like a rented mule. Hopefully, the pendulum starts to swing back.


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Re: ‘Strainer’ things have happened

Post by YANXWIN » Fri Jan 10, 2014 8:38 am

hobie16 wrote:
YANXWIN wrote:Only as long as Sears is around. I am beginning to doubt the "lifetime" of my tools, considering that Sears may go the way of the dodo before long.
I've been pretty happy with all of my Craftsman tools. In the years I've owned them I've a ratchet fail and a socket split. Both were replaced no questions asked. I also had a torque wrench seize but it turned out to be old grease that had hardened.

I would hope that after little Eddie Lampert has ruined the rest of the Sears/Kmart business that we'll see either stand alone Craftsman stores or they go the Snap-On Tools route and start selling out of a truck.
I love my craftsman tools and hope they never go away. I have a bunch of snap-on and cornwell tools as well, from more mechanicing days gone by, but the craftsman ones work just fine for the limited time I spend with them now. If Sears does go bye-bye, I would love to see just a tool store. I don't think you would ever see them go to a tool truck model, as they are not really marketed to the professional mechanic. It would take a pretty large shift in branding and perception, but stranger things have happened.



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Re: ‘Strainer’ things have happened

Post by felinefan » Sat Jan 11, 2014 2:18 pm

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."--Albert Einstein



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Re: ‘Strainer’ things have happened

Post by PatchOBlack » Tue Jan 21, 2014 2:45 pm

felinefan wrote:"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."--Albert Einstein
A great quote. Science and religion need not be polar opposites. I believe science gives us a view on how the universe works, but does not preclude the idea that there is a greater force at work.

As to this fellow wearing the strainer on his head to promote the the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster...um....

If he seriously believes the The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a serious "religion", he is far off base. Personally, I am willing to accept the "Pastafarian" movement as being a "light-hearted rib-poking" of those who push religious beliefs to such extremes as to try and legal force them on others. After all, the whole thing started as a response to those who were pushing to have "intelligent design" being taught in place of or along side the theory of evolution. As long as it isn't the wholesale mockery of those who hold a religious belief, that's alright. However, I'm not sure that is why this fellow decided to wear the colander. I fear that it is less about "religious freedom" and the so-called "freedom FROM religion".



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