Thursday, September 16, 2010

Around the Web

As always, my (mostly successful) attempts to find the worthwhile material underneath all the crap of Lolcats and YouTube video of people being injured. 

A moving letter by Mother who lost her son to an illegitimate war.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/i-have-become-uncomfortably-numb  


Roughly my opinion: 
http://www.lowbird.com/data/images/2009/12/e091207-pett.jpg

Some amazing artwork.
http://sergey-larenkov.livejournal.com/


A humorous take on a distinctly interesting subject:  
http://www.churchhopping.com/ten-verses-never-preached-on/


The pathetic thing is, this list probably isn't comprehensive. At least the bible isn't just full of crap; it's also full of contradictions.
http://www.evilbible.com/Biblical%20Contradictions.htm

Evidence that yes, uranium is a non-renewable resource, but that there isn't quite the shortage that the anti-nuclear corner seems to believe in.
http://nuclearinfo.net/Nuclearpower/WebHomeAvailabilityOfUsableUranium

More corporate exploitation. (Wow, there seems to be a theme somewhere!)
http://rabble.ca/news/2010/09/hidden-costs-canada%E2%80%99s-banana-market

In my opinion, likely the best XKCD ever. 
http://xkcd.org/792/

It does sound as if there is some truth to the claim.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/09/canadian-tar-sands-industry-government-maintains-higher-water-toxicity-natural.php?campaign=th_rss

If you haven't seen the tower being free-climbed, then I'll direct you over to Boing-Boing. I have a fear of heights that however inconveniencing, still made watching this in full-screen quite an adventure. 
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/15/free-climbing-a-towe.html 

Sarah Palin + EFF + bullshit TOS.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/09/sarah-palin-revisited 

Great Wired article. 
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/obama-epa-investigations 

Nothing but good news on here, eh?
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/148169


Just because I want to stop explaining this to the employees at electronics stores. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_Myth


If you don't know why America has a lacking system of public transportation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Streetcar_Scandal 

Laugh of the day:
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/15/alvisos-medicinal-al.html 

It just do happens that I love TED. 
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/the-magic-that-is-ted/


I watched both, and enjoyed them: nothing revolutionary, but still should be enough to return pro-DRM back to the world where the rest of us live.
http://craphound.com/?p=3071

Unfortunate. 
http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/07/28/starcraft-ii-pirates-stung-by-malware/ 

I really enjoyed this, although I doubt it will mean much if you don't have an interest in LOTR, although you never know. 
http://philipreeve.blogspot.com/2010/08/this-is-tolkien-poster-i-had-on-my.html


I'll leave it at that. If you have anything I might be interested in, send it my way. Remember, proper credit is a right, not a gift, not optional.







Monday, September 13, 2010

"I don't want to live on this planet anymore." (Part I)

One of the principles of human society is conflict. Whether between ideas (string theory) ideals (democracy) or morals (capital punishment) there is always a component of contention: nothing is ever universally agreed upon. Some would argue it's a positive trait of humanity, since scientific methods of inquiry revolve around questioning. But at some point; some things simply reach a point at which they are not just beyond all reasonable doubt, but all doubt.* The Earth orbits the Sun. Everyone that believes otherwise is ignoring such massive amounts of evidence that I feel almost guilty insulting them. Almost. 

Simply put, if you still take the word of the Church over the enormous quantities of evidence that humanity can present to show that there is indeed a G-type main sequence star that all planets in our solar system orbit, you should be certified insane. There is no mass-cultural delusion or brainwashing of children that religion employs to create blindness to reason in it's adherents. 

Simply stupidity: http://www.galileowaswrong.com/galileowaswrong/


In case you were wondering where the quote that is the title of this post came from:




*(Although sometimes there is simply not enough evidence anywhere: while evolution is now supported by a body of such vast amounts of evidence that most rational thinkers would have to abandon their sanity to insist it's incorrect, there is a massive part of the population that is not so enlightened.)

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Wall-Street Shamans

In more than one respect, those who labour in the banks and firms of Big Finance remind me of pre-medieval shamans.

Both spin never-ending lies in complex forms as varied as they are untrue. Their word governs everything from medicine to Republican tribal politics. In return for these lies, they are excused from any actual work: betting on whether or not a number is going to increase or decrease is not a productive occupation: it is little more than educated gambling, and is the modern equivalent of prayer and chants - at best useless, and more often than not destructive.

I've always found it interesting that we choose to not merely accept, but encourage the pursuit of these careers in our society. We may have taken a step away from religion and barbarism, but insist on keeping the crazy old men in tents, chanting about the end of the world and when the rain will come.