In case you live under a rock and haven't seen Randy Pausch's last lecture.
Back in the rounds again because he just died.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
MoveOn.org giving away Obama buttons
https://political.moveon.org/obamabuttons/?id=-3005408-nnS.o_x
Honestly, I think this is a pretty smart move. Buttons are cheap, advertise for the candidate, they get information and solicit donations at the same time. My only question is why isn't the Obama campaign themselves doing this?
Honestly, I think this is a pretty smart move. Buttons are cheap, advertise for the candidate, they get information and solicit donations at the same time. My only question is why isn't the Obama campaign themselves doing this?
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
My aunt is kind of creepy.
My cousin's (mothers-sister-daughter) children were ill cared for by her for a number of reasons. Strings were pulled and requests made to get them into a Mooseheart which to be properly cared for and frankly it was a good fit to be sure especially considering the neglect. Now, my cousin calls up and my aunt answers and they start talking... this is where it got creepy.
She (my cousin, mothers-sisters-daughter-daughter) wanted to read the Golden Compass (my aunt didn't know about the internet story that it was a book about killing God) and sufficed it to know there were spirit animals which were notably unholy and that my cousin should is being fooled by Satan and that she has a good mind (which she should never ever use) and should ask herself "What would Jesus do?" (attack the book seller with a homemade whip clearly) and should because of "her beliefs" should ask where Jesus is in everything she does. Talk about creepy. I think the talk went to Harry Potter as she asked where they went to learn magic or something and my aunt suggested that all magic was evil, used for evil, and *REAL*. Most parents who worried about Harry Potter leading their kids to Satanism read the books and became fans themselves.
For what it's worth certainly some schooling is better than none but it is creepy. My grandfather was a Moose and my mother and aunt attended the school. I was once told that they use to hold the prom of the school in the moose lodge but stopped after the school became desegregated and the lodges are white male only.
Now, I'm all creeped out. If you want a shower of good vibes here's a TIME article about men getting all attached to their daughters vaginas.
She (my cousin, mothers-sisters-daughter-daughter) wanted to read the Golden Compass (my aunt didn't know about the internet story that it was a book about killing God) and sufficed it to know there were spirit animals which were notably unholy and that my cousin should is being fooled by Satan and that she has a good mind (which she should never ever use) and should ask herself "What would Jesus do?" (attack the book seller with a homemade whip clearly) and should because of "her beliefs" should ask where Jesus is in everything she does. Talk about creepy. I think the talk went to Harry Potter as she asked where they went to learn magic or something and my aunt suggested that all magic was evil, used for evil, and *REAL*. Most parents who worried about Harry Potter leading their kids to Satanism read the books and became fans themselves.
For what it's worth certainly some schooling is better than none but it is creepy. My grandfather was a Moose and my mother and aunt attended the school. I was once told that they use to hold the prom of the school in the moose lodge but stopped after the school became desegregated and the lodges are white male only.
Now, I'm all creeped out. If you want a shower of good vibes here's a TIME article about men getting all attached to their daughters vaginas.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
Wow, that makes me really like Obama.
Obama's sister Maya Soetoro-Ng says a few things about the guy which raises my already high approval of him:
(Via pandagon.net)
A comment on pandagon about redstate comments on the article in question is fantastic:
Barack Obama is a dedicated feminist who "lives surrounded by women," his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, told a mostly female crowd at a Women For Obama event in downtown Tampa on Thursday.
...
She said he taught her to ride a bicycle, made her practice harder math problems and start an exercise program, took her on college visits and even gave her her first women's health book - "Our Bodies, Ourselves," a 1973 guide that came out of the women's movement and focused on female sexuality, health and hygiene.
(Via pandagon.net)
A comment on pandagon about redstate comments on the article in question is fantastic:
Did you see the comment on Redstate that argues this can’t possibly be true, because the book came out when Maya was 4. Unless Obama was such a sick pervert to give his sister the book as a toddler, they speculate.
I once received a copy of “Henry V”, which only goes to prove that I’m actually an immortal 900 year old time lord.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Creationists are either stupid or think stupidity is funny.
Honestly? Lungs evolve from gas bladders. Gas bladders store air and control the buoyancy of a fish. Feet from the fins typically with a lot of strengthening for basic locomotion. Also, at around this time insects were already widespread on the land and mosses and very basic plants were abound. So we have land filled with very tasty spiders and an ocean filled with predators and people have the idiotic nonsensical belief that short excursions on to land are somehow impossible to evolve gradually. You can't evolve inroads to a completely untapped niche safe from all predators! That's impossible.
Damn hearing.
I needed to use some ear buds to play a video game, so I removed most all of my ear wax. I went swimming and without anything to block it the damned water has taken up residence. I miss my hearing.
Atheist Social Networking Site?
PZ mentioned it (Atheist Nexus), but I need me an Atheist Anti-Social Networking Site.*
* I should probably have a policy against making an entire post for one joke.
* I should probably have a policy against making an entire post for one joke.
British TV is not mediocre.
Somehow in my years of TV watching I've observed a few trends. British TV is rarely mediocre. Either they comedies are amazingly funny like Coupling or they aren't like everything else. Either the Dramas are good like Spooks or they aren't like other shows. The shows are either really really good or really really bad. BBC has a new show called Bonekickers which since I had the bad sense to watch, and haven't blogged in a short while, I feel inclined to share. It's horrible. I mean wow. The first episode had them hunting down the cross of Jesus. I mean, that crap alone is enough to make you wince. That doesn't even cover the odd evangelical preacher and the kids he's brainwashed into being faith-warriors and hunting down and killing people... like some Muslim student who said that you probably shouldn't pull swords on people for no good reason... and it ends in a giant underground fire burning up all the different Crosses of Jesus. Zounds!
"There is always something down there," says serious but sexy archaeologist Dr Gillian Magwilde (Julie Graham) at the start of the new digger drama Bonekickers.
"Oh no there isn't," she should be told.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
All the water in the world.
All the water. All the air.
So, there's a lot more dirt. That's pretty much the jist of it.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Dancing Cornstarch
That stuff is awesome. Mythbusters used it to walk on water. It has a fun property of being more viscous when the object going through it has a high velocity. So you use it in a large vat and you can run across it so long as you don't stop. This however is an entirely different subject.
Fun trivia fact: I have no clue what Cornstarch is, or is used for... other than generally believing it is derived from corn.
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Friday, July 11, 2008
The Hero's Journey
Today, in fairly idle conversation I referenced a comment I had made on the About Atheism forum which I thought to be particularly insightful which was in response to another remarkably insightful post I had made which referenced the Hero's Journey. This in turn, derailed the conversation of how brilliant I am and moved it to a conversation of the Hero's Journey.
You would be astounded at how easily topics about 'how brilliant I am' derail. We can talk about this or that for thirty minutes at a time... but when the central topic is me and my brilliance everybody takes the first topic exit ramp available, in this case: The Hero's Journey. This tangentially allows me to wax on about a specific topic which I undoubtedly have indepth knowledge of, thusly demonstrating 'how brilliant I am', it is still not actual topic of conversation. I can quickly draw the topic back to the brilliance I possess, but it quickly derails again. I can only assume that either other people don't want to talk about how brilliant I am, or they are too stupid to recognize it as a fascinating topic. Either way (though, clearly the latter) I might as well blog about the Hero's Journey:
All stories tend to have the same basic outline with a number of different bits. There are other formulations of the Hero's Journey (about as many formulations as there are OF the Hero's Journey). The basic Gospel story meets this general criteria and the more in depth tellings of the myth are also well established. However, many feel that because the Gospel story is similar to other stories that it must be borrowed from other stories. I think that, because of the Hero's Journey and the general sameness of all fictional hero stories that considerably more evidence and better evidence is needed. I think the argument for the Homeric Epics is well made in this regard, in that it explains some odd minute details of the gospels which otherwise fail to make any sense.
1. A call to adventure,
2. A road of trials,
3. Achieving the goal or "boon",
4. A return to the ordinary world,
5. Applying the boon,
The Hero's Journey in Film
Damn... I'm brilliant.
You would be astounded at how easily topics about 'how brilliant I am' derail. We can talk about this or that for thirty minutes at a time... but when the central topic is me and my brilliance everybody takes the first topic exit ramp available, in this case: The Hero's Journey. This tangentially allows me to wax on about a specific topic which I undoubtedly have indepth knowledge of, thusly demonstrating 'how brilliant I am', it is still not actual topic of conversation. I can quickly draw the topic back to the brilliance I possess, but it quickly derails again. I can only assume that either other people don't want to talk about how brilliant I am, or they are too stupid to recognize it as a fascinating topic. Either way (though, clearly the latter) I might as well blog about the Hero's Journey:
All stories tend to have the same basic outline with a number of different bits. There are other formulations of the Hero's Journey (about as many formulations as there are OF the Hero's Journey). The basic Gospel story meets this general criteria and the more in depth tellings of the myth are also well established. However, many feel that because the Gospel story is similar to other stories that it must be borrowed from other stories. I think that, because of the Hero's Journey and the general sameness of all fictional hero stories that considerably more evidence and better evidence is needed. I think the argument for the Homeric Epics is well made in this regard, in that it explains some odd minute details of the gospels which otherwise fail to make any sense.
1. A call to adventure,
2. A road of trials,
3. Achieving the goal or "boon",
4. A return to the ordinary world,
5. Applying the boon,
The Hero's Journey in Film
Damn... I'm brilliant.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Forecast sites seem to agree... the presidential race is boring right now.
I'm a big fan of Electoral-Vote.com and okay with fivethirtyeight.com both of which have Obama holding strong in polling at 300-330 ish range. The predictions hasn't changed much and as far as McCain goes he doesn't seem to have much of a message as of yet.
I watched this Republican Spot like three times and I'm still confused as to how stupid I'm suppose to be. Zounds, alternative energy and drilling, caring about climate change and drilling, an ineffective suggestion of a gas tax and drilling... and Obama... that bastard opposes drilling. We might find 20 million barrels of oil or something! That could have zero impact on the price of gasoline for a decade... and massive impact on our shores for a long time.
With the price of oil at present. It's going to start being cost effective to slant drill ANWR soon. 7 billion barrels of oil at 200 a barrel is 1.4 trillion dollars.
I watched this Republican Spot like three times and I'm still confused as to how stupid I'm suppose to be. Zounds, alternative energy and drilling, caring about climate change and drilling, an ineffective suggestion of a gas tax and drilling... and Obama... that bastard opposes drilling. We might find 20 million barrels of oil or something! That could have zero impact on the price of gasoline for a decade... and massive impact on our shores for a long time.
With the price of oil at present. It's going to start being cost effective to slant drill ANWR soon. 7 billion barrels of oil at 200 a barrel is 1.4 trillion dollars.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
If you lack evidence for Santa Claus, you lack evidence he danced a jig.
I recently encountered some speculation about Jesus getting married, living through the crucifixion (via swoon theory) few kids and other things. In response I made a point I've made several other times concerning this sort of in depth speculation.
There is no evidence that a historical Jesus existed at all. I've done enough research to know the sources are exceedingly poor in that regard so I know, by default, that this in depth speculation is a crock of shit.
Allow me an analogy. There is absolutely no good evidence for the existence of big foot. We have no good skeletons, no poop, no hairs, nothing to suggest that there even is a big foot. No matter what qualifications you have, if you are speculating on the mating habits of big foot, the social hierarchy, food preference, etc. ... you are talking out of your ass.
The fact that there is no good evidence that something even exists in the first place, precludes a good evidentiary standing on which significantly more in depth speculation might rest. If you lack good evidence for Santa Claus, you lack good evidence Santa Claus dancing a jig.
There is no evidence that a historical Jesus existed at all. I've done enough research to know the sources are exceedingly poor in that regard so I know, by default, that this in depth speculation is a crock of shit.
Allow me an analogy. There is absolutely no good evidence for the existence of big foot. We have no good skeletons, no poop, no hairs, nothing to suggest that there even is a big foot. No matter what qualifications you have, if you are speculating on the mating habits of big foot, the social hierarchy, food preference, etc. ... you are talking out of your ass.
The fact that there is no good evidence that something even exists in the first place, precludes a good evidentiary standing on which significantly more in depth speculation might rest. If you lack good evidence for Santa Claus, you lack good evidence Santa Claus dancing a jig.
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