Archive for September, 2005

Upbeat and assorted.

Friday, September 30th, 2005

Yes, that’s correct. Apparently there is a BaldGuyz corporation making products just for… well, “bald guys”. As time goes by I am falling more and more into their target audience.
I think these boxes look pretty funny though.
* * *
I wouldn’t actually buy BaldGuyz products, but as an engineer I think I am duty-bound to [...]

I guess we need a happy after that

Thursday, September 29th, 2005

From The Panda’s Thumb
The Intelligent Designer’s Prayer
Our Intelligent Designer,
Who art in the unspecified-good-place,
Unknown be Thy name.
Thy flagella spin, Thy mousetraps snap,
On Earth, as it is in the
Unspecified-good-place.
Give us each day our unchecked apologetic.
And forgive us our invidious comparisons,
As we smite those iniquitous Darwinists
With rhetoric.
And lead us not into encounters with people
Who ask us to state [...]

Oh good: depressing and cynical

Thursday, September 29th, 2005

So, I’m happy about old Tom, but let’s do a quick pass over some other news:
* * *
Colorado parents burn books - Wikinews
Norwood, Colorado parents recently burned copies of Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima after having them pulled from the area high school’s curriculum. Millie Davis, of the National Council of Teachers of English, said [...]

Insert your own “bringing the Hammer down” joke

Thursday, September 29th, 2005

It is unreasonable how much of an optimistic lift this has given me:
U.S. house majority leader DeLay indicted, steps down temporarily - Wikinews
U.S House of Representatives majority leader Tom DeLay was indicted today by a Travis County Texas grand jury on conspiracy charges. DeLay announced that he will step down temporarily from his leadership position.

The [...]

Tonight’s thought

Wednesday, September 28th, 2005

What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of scientific inquiry combined with a belief that the torture of millions is not desirable, whether inflicted by Stalin or by a Deity imagined in the likeness of the believer.
—Bertrand Russell

The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

Wednesday, September 28th, 2005

If you read the preceding post and thought I was being too worked up about a bunch of people being dumb, I refer you to the The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity, specifically the Fourth law:
Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times [...]

As I suspected

Wednesday, September 28th, 2005

Track 14
Yesterday’s Times brings an article describing of a new study looking at how the degree to which a society is religious affects the moral and ethical foundations of a society.
The results are no surprise to me.
The paper, published in the Journal of Religion and Society, a US academic journal, reports: “Many Americans agree that [...]

Even More On Evolution

Monday, September 26th, 2005

The Reuters story on the PA (here it is at Yahoo) case contains these depressing facts.
New evolution spat in U.S. schools goes to court
At least 31 states are taking steps to teach alternatives to evolution. A CBS poll last November found 65 percent of Americans favor teaching creationism as well as evolution while 37 [...]

War is Bad, Peace is Good…

Monday, September 26th, 2005

…and Harlan Ellison is, well, Harlan.
Anyone who knows anything about science fiction knows about Harlan, up to and including the fact that he once kind of took out a hit on an editor of his (well, actually a comptroller) over cigarette ads (it’s a funny story when he tells it)
Apparently the Penny Arcade guys, didn’t [...]

Expanding My Vocabulary

Monday, September 26th, 2005

I love the idea of concepts that other languages posses words for, which my native language does not. The kinds of things you can express in a language tells you something about the way native speakers of that language see the world–this can reveal concepts to you that you previously literally could not think about [...]

Halliburton Gets Contract

Monday, September 26th, 2005

OK, I was bored of them for a while, but I do still occasionally love the guys at The Onion:
Halliburton Gets Contract To Pry Gold Fillings From New Orleans Corpses’ Teeth
It’s funny because…

Darwin has a posse

Monday, September 26th, 2005

OK, I can’t believe I’m writing about this stuff again (put “evolution” in the search box and you’ll get lots of other posts with related rants), and we’re still in the 21st century.
Why do so many people just want to throw their hands up and give up on trying to understand the world…
‘Intelligent design’ taken [...]

Bush appointed dictator

Sunday, September 25th, 2005

Okay, so maybe that’s a bit hyperbolic, he’s not quite Sulla yet (and I doubt he will be returning his powers to the more general government at the end of his term!), but apparently the courts have decided (again) that he has the power to abrogate the Constitution more or less at his whim, and [...]

Margaritas ante porcos

Friday, September 23rd, 2005

I am happy to report I have just pre-ordered my copy of the Subterranean Press limited edition of Tim Powers‘ new book. (Not the lettered one–I’m a rabid Powers fanboy, but not to the tune of $600US. Maybe if they double my salary.)
Ordering of the book by the general public (I am so a laminate, [...]

BOOM - Server Crash!

Friday, September 23rd, 2005

Well, my ISP had a server crash yesterday, which anyone trying to access the blog surely noticed.
Part of the crash recovery involved restoring from their last backup, which was apparently long enough ago that all my September posts are lost. Fortunately, I have local copies of the postings in my RSS reader (yes, I subscribe [...]