Ten Questions Atheists cannot Answer

1. How did life arise on earth?
2. How many galaxies are there in the universe, exactly?
3. If there was nothing before the Big Bang, how did it know when to start?
4. What’s the evolutionary advantage of dental caries?
5. Did Cambrium end on a Thursday?
6. What was Jack the Ripper’s real identity?
7. Can’t the frogs in my garden shut up, so I can get some sleep?
8. Can God create a wall so high that he cannot jump over it?
9. Where did I leave my slippers yesterday evening?
10. What on earth is going on in creationists’ minds?
11. Wasn’t this supposed to be just ten questions?

Superfluous University Degree

You do not need a degree to succeed in life. You can replace one with

• hard work 
• unique talents
• a large amount of luck.

If you cannot guarantee these three, you are probably better off with a degree.

An Efficient Circle

In my sister's company there was a division that was incredibly productive last year. They produced tons of memos and presentations and product plans. Unfortunately, no result of all this ever reached any customer. 

There were three departments involved in the release cycle, and they depended heavily on each other. Doug, the head of Delivery, was stuck waiting for Eric, head of Effects to produce output, which Eric could not possibly come up with without input from Filip, head of Fagocytosis. Filip was all eager to provide all that was needed, and each week he sent a reminder to Doug to deliver the necessary information for Filip to provide his tasks.

At the end of the year, an external consultant delivered a report in which he was very pleased with the information flow between Doug, Eric and Filip. There were no less than 156 mails sent between them during the year, each containing reminders that they were waiting for each other's deliveries.

Venus transit 2012 in France

If you observe the 6 June 2012 Venus transit in France, these are the times you should remember:

5:50. Sunrise. The transit has already started.
6:37. Venus starts exiting the sun.
6:55. Venus has fully exited the sun.

Even though astronomy is supposed to be an exact science, I'm as agnostic as ever here, that is all the figures here are approximate, as far as I'm concerned. 

Some further tidbits:

• Don't look at the sun. When the sun rises, it is very unpredictable how bright it will be with the current weather conditions. It is possible that you could look at it immediately after sunrise, but that is likely to change very quickly. So, don't look at the sun.
• You probably will not see very much. Venus is just a tiny dot on the sun.
• If you want to be confused by much more facts, check for example the web site of the Observatoire de Nice and this local transit time calculator. 
• Some web sites call this the 5th June Venus transit instead of the 6th. That is because the transit starts when the time has not yet struck midnight in the Americas.
• It is probably going to rain.

Update: It did not rain, but it was cloudy.

♀