Well, I've improved my performance greatly in loading the article into my database in the hopes that I'll be able to use this data to help them update their interface.
So, up from the last number of articles I have loaded in to my database, I now have 7770 articles of over 10,000 articles uploaded.
That's pretty good. Less than 3,000 to go and then I'll need to be able to grab the most recent articles as well.
There are lots of options with the Useless-Knowledge website update. one hopes for the least work for the most increased abilities, looks and performance, but it seems to me that it is likely that they'll need something completely custom.
I just don't know. And considering the efforts necessary for completely custom - it is difficult to discern if it is worth it. Perhaps they should look at the update in phases. Start with looks and an improved posting logic. Then later add article counters and comments sections to the articles.
It might be better, who knows.
Alex
Monday, December 12, 2005
New Greyhound
This is mostly a personal entry. It has been the better part of two years since one of our two greyhounds had to be put to sleep.
I should say that there is a moral obligation when humans take on pets - that you must be able to say to yourself about the animal at least 'I am going to kill you' - when you take on a pet.
Because it is unfair for an animal to live its existence primarily for your pleasure and companionship to suffer a horrible painful prolonged death because you don't have the guts to know when the time is - to put that animal to sleep. To kill it. Or you don't have the courage to do what needs to be done.
And in most cases - unless you are near the end of your own life you will outlive your family pet(s). One of the dogs we almost adopted - the owners - a couple - the husband died. The dog was mostly the husbands dog and the wife I suspect may no longer have been up to handling a dog - at least for a time. Fortunately, the dog is healthy and can be re-adopted to another family. Boy it was a really friendly dog. I have cats in the house, though - and this particular greyhound failed the cat test and wanted to eat the test cat. Since I don't want to have another dog at the expense of losing all my cats - he was out of the running.
It is a stark reality that any pet owner should acknowledge when you begin your custodianship of an animal. It is responsiblity for life and death.
Determination of when that time is - to put down a pet - is much harder. But if you don't recognize the fact that this will probably come to pass on inception of taking care of an animal - it is much harder.
No matter what it is hard to put an animal down - when the balance has shifted significantly on the issue of quantity or quality of life. It is largely a judgement call - but good veterninarians won't let you put an otherwise healthy animal down - if in their judgement you are overreacting.
Ok, so we've been looking for a new dog. It is always a journey to find a good fit. Fortunately, I think we found one in a timid greyhound who is just off the track called Willy.
Unfortunately, our current greyhound is called Philly, and Willy doesn't know his name. So you call one and you get both. So we are going to change Willy's name. Usually we keep the name, with Jet and Philly - we kept their original names. They both also seemed to know their original names - so that makes it a whole lot harder to justify changing the dogs name.
I've been watching a lot of anime lately - and am a fan of the sounds that Japanese language makes. So, my wife and I came up with a first and last name for our new Greyhound formerly known as Willy.
Oku Gengetsu. Oku - meaning Timid. Gengetsu - meaning crescent moon.
Greyhounds in general are somewhere between labrador retrievers and well, I can't come up with a completely sedate breed of dog. Anyway, Greyhounds are usually fairly well-rounded in being jumpy happy dogs and lying on the couch or floor sleeping.
Oku, though - and probably because he doesn't know anything about anything - is very very timid. So, Oku means timid in Japanese - and timid he is.
Crescent moon - is because he has a large two or three inch tall crescent moon scar on his side. We actually didn't notice it when we picked him up (him being very timid and another dog that we couldn't have because of his cat-eating obsession being very pushy and wanting to be with me). It wouldn't have mattered, of course. Philly was abused before she came to us and had many scars, but nothing nearly as large as this.
Timid Crescent Moon. Doesn't sound nice or anything in English. It is transformed - even in simple words - in Japanese to Oku Gengetsu.
So, hopefully, some day - a very long time from now - will come the time of decisions for Oku. And one hopes it will be a long time for Philly as well. But Philly is getting older and a large amount of the reason we got Oku - was because she was getting lonely and stopping eating.
She is of course ecstatic to have a companion again.
Now, if only we could get Random to be disciplined enough not to scare Oku so Oku can get acclamated to our house. :)
He's doing well, though - with all so many new things around him. And he isn't allowed to come up on the couch yet.... Which has got to bug him because Philly is allowed to... But them's the rules passed down from the adoption/rescue people and that's that.
Alex
I should say that there is a moral obligation when humans take on pets - that you must be able to say to yourself about the animal at least 'I am going to kill you' - when you take on a pet.
Because it is unfair for an animal to live its existence primarily for your pleasure and companionship to suffer a horrible painful prolonged death because you don't have the guts to know when the time is - to put that animal to sleep. To kill it. Or you don't have the courage to do what needs to be done.
And in most cases - unless you are near the end of your own life you will outlive your family pet(s). One of the dogs we almost adopted - the owners - a couple - the husband died. The dog was mostly the husbands dog and the wife I suspect may no longer have been up to handling a dog - at least for a time. Fortunately, the dog is healthy and can be re-adopted to another family. Boy it was a really friendly dog. I have cats in the house, though - and this particular greyhound failed the cat test and wanted to eat the test cat. Since I don't want to have another dog at the expense of losing all my cats - he was out of the running.
It is a stark reality that any pet owner should acknowledge when you begin your custodianship of an animal. It is responsiblity for life and death.
Determination of when that time is - to put down a pet - is much harder. But if you don't recognize the fact that this will probably come to pass on inception of taking care of an animal - it is much harder.
No matter what it is hard to put an animal down - when the balance has shifted significantly on the issue of quantity or quality of life. It is largely a judgement call - but good veterninarians won't let you put an otherwise healthy animal down - if in their judgement you are overreacting.
Ok, so we've been looking for a new dog. It is always a journey to find a good fit. Fortunately, I think we found one in a timid greyhound who is just off the track called Willy.
Unfortunately, our current greyhound is called Philly, and Willy doesn't know his name. So you call one and you get both. So we are going to change Willy's name. Usually we keep the name, with Jet and Philly - we kept their original names. They both also seemed to know their original names - so that makes it a whole lot harder to justify changing the dogs name.
I've been watching a lot of anime lately - and am a fan of the sounds that Japanese language makes. So, my wife and I came up with a first and last name for our new Greyhound formerly known as Willy.
Oku Gengetsu. Oku - meaning Timid. Gengetsu - meaning crescent moon.
Greyhounds in general are somewhere between labrador retrievers and well, I can't come up with a completely sedate breed of dog. Anyway, Greyhounds are usually fairly well-rounded in being jumpy happy dogs and lying on the couch or floor sleeping.
Oku, though - and probably because he doesn't know anything about anything - is very very timid. So, Oku means timid in Japanese - and timid he is.
Crescent moon - is because he has a large two or three inch tall crescent moon scar on his side. We actually didn't notice it when we picked him up (him being very timid and another dog that we couldn't have because of his cat-eating obsession being very pushy and wanting to be with me). It wouldn't have mattered, of course. Philly was abused before she came to us and had many scars, but nothing nearly as large as this.
Timid Crescent Moon. Doesn't sound nice or anything in English. It is transformed - even in simple words - in Japanese to Oku Gengetsu.
So, hopefully, some day - a very long time from now - will come the time of decisions for Oku. And one hopes it will be a long time for Philly as well. But Philly is getting older and a large amount of the reason we got Oku - was because she was getting lonely and stopping eating.
She is of course ecstatic to have a companion again.
Now, if only we could get Random to be disciplined enough not to scare Oku so Oku can get acclamated to our house. :)
He's doing well, though - with all so many new things around him. And he isn't allowed to come up on the couch yet.... Which has got to bug him because Philly is allowed to... But them's the rules passed down from the adoption/rescue people and that's that.
Alex
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Useless-Knowledge
I am currently involved in a project to update the useless-knowledge website. Who knows what will really happen to the site, but one thing is crystal clear - in a major update many people might say leave the old articles behind.
This is very disturbing to me - these articles represent a lot of work on the part of a lot of people. Over 10,000 articles and who knows how many people.
So, I have begun first by getting a list of all the articles in to my database - and now the slow process of grabbing that content and putting it in a database. This way, if and when a conversion happens, the data will be in a database and can be applied to the newer format.
I am currently on the 143rd article - going in to my database. This is going to take some time, because I have ascertained no completely automated way to place the articles in the database. I could grab the entire page, but this isn't particularly useful.
I am just grabbing the article content and whatever HTML is associated with the article.
We'll see how long I stick with this and how much time is involved.
Alex
This is very disturbing to me - these articles represent a lot of work on the part of a lot of people. Over 10,000 articles and who knows how many people.
So, I have begun first by getting a list of all the articles in to my database - and now the slow process of grabbing that content and putting it in a database. This way, if and when a conversion happens, the data will be in a database and can be applied to the newer format.
I am currently on the 143rd article - going in to my database. This is going to take some time, because I have ascertained no completely automated way to place the articles in the database. I could grab the entire page, but this isn't particularly useful.
I am just grabbing the article content and whatever HTML is associated with the article.
We'll see how long I stick with this and how much time is involved.
Alex
Colored Bubbles
In a previous posting I showed a link to a Popular Science of Popular Mechanics article - which talked about the difficulties of creating bubbles that have color instead of clear bubbles.
Well, one of the uses this process could be applied to is medical coloring. Since the color disappears - when one applies an ointment to your face (for example) it could be colored temporarily - showing the user exactly what parts of the face have been covered.
I suffer from acne - even at age 34 - or however old I am now.
I use a couple of topical medications as well as a medical soap - but nothing works 100% or even 95%.
I do wonder if such medical coloring - could help - and show what parts of the face I miss with medicine (if that is what is the current problem).
The applications of this material are immense - even without considering the cosmetic fun that could be had if the coloration lasted hours instead of seconds.
Alex
Well, one of the uses this process could be applied to is medical coloring. Since the color disappears - when one applies an ointment to your face (for example) it could be colored temporarily - showing the user exactly what parts of the face have been covered.
I suffer from acne - even at age 34 - or however old I am now.
I use a couple of topical medications as well as a medical soap - but nothing works 100% or even 95%.
I do wonder if such medical coloring - could help - and show what parts of the face I miss with medicine (if that is what is the current problem).
The applications of this material are immense - even without considering the cosmetic fun that could be had if the coloration lasted hours instead of seconds.
Alex
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Writing Music
I was involved with music ages ago. Or at least it seems like ages ago. Right now I have some music instruments around and I play them sometimes for my son so that hopefully he will have some interest in music.
So, it has always been of interest to me to write music - but writing music on paper and performing it with a trumpet was never really my interest. I always wanted to do it in some automated manner.
There is software out there - mentioned by Him Louderback - that allows you to write music (using music notes and Midi synthesizer sounds) on the computer and have the computer perform the music.
Two pieces of software he mentions specifically - Cakewalk Sonar 5 and Notion. He had some complaints about Notion, but he also had some good points with it in that it had excellent sounds to go with the music notes. Rather unfortunately, the software is relatively expensive and at the moment I am pursuing other non-work goals.
Can't do everything at once. Right now I am concentrating on writing my Manga Style comic book - starting with an outline of the story and a cell by cell description of what needs to be drawn.
And at the same time, I am gradually getting the opportunity to learn how to draw in the Manga style.
I suspect that this will be a long-term project, but I definitely feel that the medium of Manga comic book will be an excellent form for the stories I have to tell.
Alex
So, it has always been of interest to me to write music - but writing music on paper and performing it with a trumpet was never really my interest. I always wanted to do it in some automated manner.
There is software out there - mentioned by Him Louderback - that allows you to write music (using music notes and Midi synthesizer sounds) on the computer and have the computer perform the music.
Two pieces of software he mentions specifically - Cakewalk Sonar 5 and Notion. He had some complaints about Notion, but he also had some good points with it in that it had excellent sounds to go with the music notes. Rather unfortunately, the software is relatively expensive and at the moment I am pursuing other non-work goals.
Can't do everything at once. Right now I am concentrating on writing my Manga Style comic book - starting with an outline of the story and a cell by cell description of what needs to be drawn.
And at the same time, I am gradually getting the opportunity to learn how to draw in the Manga style.
I suspect that this will be a long-term project, but I definitely feel that the medium of Manga comic book will be an excellent form for the stories I have to tell.
Alex
Monday, December 05, 2005
The Bright Colors of Future
In a post I made some time ago - I indicated that one of the things I would want would be to change the color of my skin, eyes and hair at any time and be able to change them again - as often as I would want to.
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/0a03b5108e097010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
There is now technology that might make some of that possible. I can almost see me with blue hair and green skin with bright red eyes. A few hours later - I'd be back to my natural color.
Who knows if these guys will be able to realize it?
I can see it now, if my son has children and I'm old he'll be yelling at them about using natural colors instead of flourescent yellow for hair color...
Alex
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/0a03b5108e097010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
There is now technology that might make some of that possible. I can almost see me with blue hair and green skin with bright red eyes. A few hours later - I'd be back to my natural color.
Who knows if these guys will be able to realize it?
I can see it now, if my son has children and I'm old he'll be yelling at them about using natural colors instead of flourescent yellow for hair color...
Alex
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Vacation
Well, I have returned from vacation - lots of things that I want to write reviews of from the course of my vacation. Our Plan with Tan vacation plan, the rental car (Lincoln Town Car), Parks that we went to and overall how things turned out. Some of these will be articles and I suspect that some of them are more blog entries for here and of more personal interest.
Oh, if you go with your child to play with sting rays at Sea World, please don't scream out when it sucks on your fingers when you feed it while your toddler is next to you. My wife scared the crap out of my son doing that.
Anyway, it turned out ok. :) Hopefully my son won't be deathly afraid of sting rays for life.
But if he's going to be afraid of something - deathly afraid of something - sting rays are a pretty good object.
And I didn't feed the sting rays after that :)
Alex
Oh, if you go with your child to play with sting rays at Sea World, please don't scream out when it sucks on your fingers when you feed it while your toddler is next to you. My wife scared the crap out of my son doing that.
Anyway, it turned out ok. :) Hopefully my son won't be deathly afraid of sting rays for life.
But if he's going to be afraid of something - deathly afraid of something - sting rays are a pretty good object.
And I didn't feed the sting rays after that :)
Alex
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Notes on current News #1
Science continues its decline in the Western world.
Consider that once - science was core to the Muslim world. Today and for a couple of centuries this has not been the case.
It should be noted that an increase in religosity is what killed of science and philosophical thought in Muslim society.
This is what is happening here in the Western World.
There aren't enough physics teachers in the UK.
Entropy in UK
Top biologists abandon the best colleges in the United States because they are not free here to do the research necessary.
Stem Cell Scientists
Genetically modified food is feared in Europe and in the United States it is prevalent but society in general is blithely unaware that it is happening. It is uncontrolled. Either policy is dangerous.
And now we have problems getting corporate America to supply funding for a Darwin exhibition at a major museum.
We are turning our backs on science - science which is literally the hand the feeds us, earns our great incomes and makes our countries flourish.
Seems there is no way to stop history from repeating itself. I suspect though - that this time through the cycle there will not be so much time in the Interregnum, and the state of science will overall be higher throughout this Interregnum.
Alex
Consider that once - science was core to the Muslim world. Today and for a couple of centuries this has not been the case.
It should be noted that an increase in religosity is what killed of science and philosophical thought in Muslim society.
This is what is happening here in the Western World.
There aren't enough physics teachers in the UK.
Entropy in UK
Top biologists abandon the best colleges in the United States because they are not free here to do the research necessary.
Stem Cell Scientists
Genetically modified food is feared in Europe and in the United States it is prevalent but society in general is blithely unaware that it is happening. It is uncontrolled. Either policy is dangerous.
And now we have problems getting corporate America to supply funding for a Darwin exhibition at a major museum.
We are turning our backs on science - science which is literally the hand the feeds us, earns our great incomes and makes our countries flourish.
Seems there is no way to stop history from repeating itself. I suspect though - that this time through the cycle there will not be so much time in the Interregnum, and the state of science will overall be higher throughout this Interregnum.
Alex
Monday, November 21, 2005
Today Monday 20051121 in the News
GM reports that they will be cutting 30,000 jobs over the next 3 years. This will result in a 1,000,000 car drop in production capacity.
Does it matter that GM is going to lose 1,000,000 car capacity? Not really. They fell in love with the American ideal of bigger is better and made lots of profit. Now they laughably have commercials about the great mileage they get in their cars. Talking about the remade Cavalier/Cobalt getting 34 mpg.
I have two very important points on this...No, three
1) When my wife owned a Chevy Corsice (1989) hatchback - she loved the power in the car. It had a nice six cylinder engine. But the brakes were constantly not quite right, I changed the battery in the car - and we had to take it to the dealer so they could reset the computer (apparently you can't do something as simple as change the battery yourself) and the electrical system was beginning to act - well weird.
2) Every American car has left me stranded on the road and helpless. It is not a good feeling - and living in New Jersey not every area is a place where you can walk to a house and ask for help.
3) My Honda Civic - 1992 - which I have since donated had 222,222 miles over 9 years. Its sticker (stick shift/manual trans) had 36/40 MPG. Sometimes you get better and sometimes you get worse mileage than the sticker. That car for the life of the car when I owned it - got 40MPG. The car broke down once - because the distributer finally crapped out at 160,000 miles. And Chevy wants to laud the Cobalt (similar car) getting 34 MPG! What a bunch of idiots - is the kindest way I can put it. And you know what - my parents had a 1986 Cavalier - and it was a piece of crap. In fact, it was the car that turned my family from American Manufacturers to - well Honda.
I could really go on a lot about this stuff. Really this is a case of macroeconomics and microeconomics.
On the Microeconomic side you have comfort, reliability and fuel-efficiency. This are all factors in favor of Honda vs GM.
On the Macroeconomics side you have jobs, GNP and global perception of Americans. These are things that if you lose the Microeconomics side - guess what you lose the Macroeconomic side.
Guess what, people in general are what you might call selfish. We don't want to be victims of being left on the side of the road. We don't want to be victimized by garages that charge lots of money to do repairs or dealers that charge even more to do repairs. We like it even if there is just a perception that by the things we do on a daily basis we are saving money.
So, people buy what is best for them - meaning foreign cars in general and my family - Honda in specific. My wife's Honda CR-V has 202,000 miles on it. Never broke down. Although once it wouldn't start because the 6-year old battery finally died. My newer Honda Accord Coupe that I replaced my Honda Civic with has 37,000 miles on it (my driving habits have changed a lot) and it needed the transmission replaced. It was on warranty and the new warranty on the new transmission is 10 years. So, I am relatively unconcerned about that.
So, nearly 500,000 miles in cars my wife have owned and one break-down. And I'm not even including the hundreds of thousands of miles my parents have put on their three Hondas that they have owned over time. A Honda Wagovan (great car, but butt ugly), their newer Honda CR-V and their 1996 Honda Accord which has 137,000 miles on it.
Sp, anyway, read this article for more information - including a little note from an analyst saying 'Clearly, they eventually need to make better products that are more competitive with their foreign competitors, but that's a long-term proposition'. The main problem is that GM does not have a long term proposition anymore. They need to make better cars, more fuel efficient cars - now, not next year and certainly not three years from now.
http://www.thestreet.com/_googlen/markets/natworden/10253826.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
Sorry folks. I went on a rand there. Nothing upsets me more than blatant stupidity. Yeah yeah - buy American and get stranded on the road. You know what - I'm in to limiting my risks. When you break down you could get in to a car accident, you could have a bad element come and rob or worse you and your car, and you could be trying to fix it on the side of the road and get hit by a drunk driver.
No thanks. I prefer to not break down in the first place.
RIAA Backs Rootkits
People are auctioning your privacy all the time. Apparently this guy thinks that anything on your computer is something that he has the right to take a look and see if everything is working just the way he wants it.
Everyone needs to send letters to these people and tell them they are allowed to make fair profit - but charging $15 an Audio CD, when everyone knows they can go to a store and buy CDs for less than 30 cents a pop, 50 cents a pop if you want a case just isn't going to float.
We just don't care enough about their profit margin. They should replace all these record stores with little machines that let you preview music and say 'burn it' and burns a quality CD. There would be no over supply or under supply of disks. People could conceivably know every track that they are purchasing and the entire disk should cost no more than $2.
Apparently stupidity is not exclusively an American trait:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/11/21/australia.tourist.ap/index.html
From the 'I want to torture people and my government won't let me. Waaaa' group:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/21/cia.prisoners.ap/index.html
Something nice to see - but maybe not so nice to smell.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/11/21/stinky.plant.ap/index.html
I have to say - if there was one that was 11 feet tall (or so) it would be neat to see in person. Hard to imagine a 11 foot tall dandelion...
So, if you have been up on the headlines lately - you may understand that there is a Darwin exhibit in a New York area museum. Due to the recent ID/Evolution debate - it attacted - $0 in businesses to fund the exhibit. Incredible. Stupidity spreads from individuals to large identities. It will be remarkable indeed if the United States will be able to keep up with other countries in science when we are apparently averse to what the science actually means and impacts life.
You know... Mazda went for a few years without the RX7 - its hot car. They noticed something - their sales slumped. Part of the reason they brought the car back as the RX8 - is that they needed something to attract people to the showroom.
Well, the United States of America's business is much like a car manufacturer. We have in the past had a lot to offer other countries. Our technical abilities attract people to do business here.
But, in this rapidly changing world - the United States of America in general is rejecting science. And our rate of scientific progress is slowing while places like South Korea are outstripping us in biology - once one of our main points of scientific progress. Science is no longer respected in the United States and we will not be attracting employers. Large companies like Intel are actually shipping high-technology jobs out of the country. Will India be the next powerhouse economy, South Korea or maybe perhaps China? It could well be.
Anyway, more than enough typing for now.
Alex
Does it matter that GM is going to lose 1,000,000 car capacity? Not really. They fell in love with the American ideal of bigger is better and made lots of profit. Now they laughably have commercials about the great mileage they get in their cars. Talking about the remade Cavalier/Cobalt getting 34 mpg.
I have two very important points on this...No, three
1) When my wife owned a Chevy Corsice (1989) hatchback - she loved the power in the car. It had a nice six cylinder engine. But the brakes were constantly not quite right, I changed the battery in the car - and we had to take it to the dealer so they could reset the computer (apparently you can't do something as simple as change the battery yourself) and the electrical system was beginning to act - well weird.
2) Every American car has left me stranded on the road and helpless. It is not a good feeling - and living in New Jersey not every area is a place where you can walk to a house and ask for help.
3) My Honda Civic - 1992 - which I have since donated had 222,222 miles over 9 years. Its sticker (stick shift/manual trans) had 36/40 MPG. Sometimes you get better and sometimes you get worse mileage than the sticker. That car for the life of the car when I owned it - got 40MPG. The car broke down once - because the distributer finally crapped out at 160,000 miles. And Chevy wants to laud the Cobalt (similar car) getting 34 MPG! What a bunch of idiots - is the kindest way I can put it. And you know what - my parents had a 1986 Cavalier - and it was a piece of crap. In fact, it was the car that turned my family from American Manufacturers to - well Honda.
I could really go on a lot about this stuff. Really this is a case of macroeconomics and microeconomics.
On the Microeconomic side you have comfort, reliability and fuel-efficiency. This are all factors in favor of Honda vs GM.
On the Macroeconomics side you have jobs, GNP and global perception of Americans. These are things that if you lose the Microeconomics side - guess what you lose the Macroeconomic side.
Guess what, people in general are what you might call selfish. We don't want to be victims of being left on the side of the road. We don't want to be victimized by garages that charge lots of money to do repairs or dealers that charge even more to do repairs. We like it even if there is just a perception that by the things we do on a daily basis we are saving money.
So, people buy what is best for them - meaning foreign cars in general and my family - Honda in specific. My wife's Honda CR-V has 202,000 miles on it. Never broke down. Although once it wouldn't start because the 6-year old battery finally died. My newer Honda Accord Coupe that I replaced my Honda Civic with has 37,000 miles on it (my driving habits have changed a lot) and it needed the transmission replaced. It was on warranty and the new warranty on the new transmission is 10 years. So, I am relatively unconcerned about that.
So, nearly 500,000 miles in cars my wife have owned and one break-down. And I'm not even including the hundreds of thousands of miles my parents have put on their three Hondas that they have owned over time. A Honda Wagovan (great car, but butt ugly), their newer Honda CR-V and their 1996 Honda Accord which has 137,000 miles on it.
Sp, anyway, read this article for more information - including a little note from an analyst saying 'Clearly, they eventually need to make better products that are more competitive with their foreign competitors, but that's a long-term proposition'. The main problem is that GM does not have a long term proposition anymore. They need to make better cars, more fuel efficient cars - now, not next year and certainly not three years from now.
http://www.thestreet.com/_googlen/markets/natworden/10253826.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
Sorry folks. I went on a rand there. Nothing upsets me more than blatant stupidity. Yeah yeah - buy American and get stranded on the road. You know what - I'm in to limiting my risks. When you break down you could get in to a car accident, you could have a bad element come and rob or worse you and your car, and you could be trying to fix it on the side of the road and get hit by a drunk driver.
No thanks. I prefer to not break down in the first place.
RIAA Backs Rootkits
People are auctioning your privacy all the time. Apparently this guy thinks that anything on your computer is something that he has the right to take a look and see if everything is working just the way he wants it.
Everyone needs to send letters to these people and tell them they are allowed to make fair profit - but charging $15 an Audio CD, when everyone knows they can go to a store and buy CDs for less than 30 cents a pop, 50 cents a pop if you want a case just isn't going to float.
We just don't care enough about their profit margin. They should replace all these record stores with little machines that let you preview music and say 'burn it' and burns a quality CD. There would be no over supply or under supply of disks. People could conceivably know every track that they are purchasing and the entire disk should cost no more than $2.
Apparently stupidity is not exclusively an American trait:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/11/21/australia.tourist.ap/index.html
From the 'I want to torture people and my government won't let me. Waaaa' group:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/21/cia.prisoners.ap/index.html
Something nice to see - but maybe not so nice to smell.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/11/21/stinky.plant.ap/index.html
I have to say - if there was one that was 11 feet tall (or so) it would be neat to see in person. Hard to imagine a 11 foot tall dandelion...
So, if you have been up on the headlines lately - you may understand that there is a Darwin exhibit in a New York area museum. Due to the recent ID/Evolution debate - it attacted - $0 in businesses to fund the exhibit. Incredible. Stupidity spreads from individuals to large identities. It will be remarkable indeed if the United States will be able to keep up with other countries in science when we are apparently averse to what the science actually means and impacts life.
You know... Mazda went for a few years without the RX7 - its hot car. They noticed something - their sales slumped. Part of the reason they brought the car back as the RX8 - is that they needed something to attract people to the showroom.
Well, the United States of America's business is much like a car manufacturer. We have in the past had a lot to offer other countries. Our technical abilities attract people to do business here.
But, in this rapidly changing world - the United States of America in general is rejecting science. And our rate of scientific progress is slowing while places like South Korea are outstripping us in biology - once one of our main points of scientific progress. Science is no longer respected in the United States and we will not be attracting employers. Large companies like Intel are actually shipping high-technology jobs out of the country. Will India be the next powerhouse economy, South Korea or maybe perhaps China? It could well be.
Anyway, more than enough typing for now.
Alex
Friday, November 18, 2005
Torture
Torture - is not allowable under any circumstance. It is a violation of the rights of man.
It is not a violation of anything in the bible or Christian religious documentation.
This is expressed by the actions of our currently very Christian government.
Ex-CIA chief: Cheney 'VP for torture'
Even the appearance of impropriety is damaging to the person who claims to be the good guy. I would advocate total video observation of any prisoners recorded to hard drives and not alterable except by Congress and the Supreme Court. It should not be viewed except for the time periods any prisoner or person brings up that improprietary conduct happened.
Who watches the watcher?
All I can really say is that I cannot believe much of anything a person says once they say they are in favor of torture - except that person is capable of anything.
Alex
It is not a violation of anything in the bible or Christian religious documentation.
This is expressed by the actions of our currently very Christian government.
Ex-CIA chief: Cheney 'VP for torture'
Even the appearance of impropriety is damaging to the person who claims to be the good guy. I would advocate total video observation of any prisoners recorded to hard drives and not alterable except by Congress and the Supreme Court. It should not be viewed except for the time periods any prisoner or person brings up that improprietary conduct happened.
Who watches the watcher?
All I can really say is that I cannot believe much of anything a person says once they say they are in favor of torture - except that person is capable of anything.
Alex
Today in the News So Far
Well, I'm going to start writing a little free form about the news I see on a daily basis. I might mine this later for article topics for the things that really cause me concern.
CNN:
Suicide bombers kill dozens in 2 Iraqi cities
People appear to die every day in Iraq. The decision is made at some point that killing will acheive your goals or if your goals can be acheived through peaceful initiative. There is little excitement in solving issues through politics... The HERO wants the war - so they can be proclaimed a HERO by all and remembered. In the end, all wars end with politicians and agreements - the Hero's actions a turn in to just a political necessity.
This CNN article is ok - until there is a non sequitur in the middle of the article when they start talking about a democratic Hawk that is now requesting our withdrawal from Iraq. The placement of this paragraph makes the implication that somehow this democrats actions resulted in the attacks and deaths in Iraq.
The next paragraph repeats a White House official calling the democrat - a coward.
A former Vietname Vet - being called a coward - by people that never served.
It is not cowardice to want to back out of an unjust war. Cheney was noted in an article yesterday: Cheney: War critics are opportunists He says senators of both parties saw Hussein as a threat that he considered Democrats opportunists and that they were attempting to revise history.
This is patently untrue. Let's break it down shall we.
Truth - Everyone backed the war at the time we started it. At least in terms of congress and in terms of having enough votes to say - let's go kill some people for the just cause.
Implication that is False - that Democrats are changing their mind on the basis of no new information.
Listen folks, I don't know how to say this any clearer. If we entered the war under false pretenses, we need to apologize to the Iraqi people, today and not 150 years after the fact like we did to the native americans.
No, leaving Iraq immediately is not probably on the list of the top 10 best things to do. Neither, apparently was starting the war in the first place. Suddenly, people are soooo concerned about the USA doing the absolute best possible action when they weren't all that concerned when they started the war in the first place.
Personally, I don't think we should pull out. But, I don't think we should stay there either.
We should pull out because we look a lot like a invader at present.
We should not pull out because Iraq may well fall in to total civil war if we just leave.
There is a solution to this problem, I think. But we need to find a neutral party that is trusted by everyone willing to send their troops in to replace ours.
Problem is, the only neutral parties I can think of don't really maintain much of a military and at this point in time must view sending troops to Iraq like we should have when we started sending troops to Vietnam after the French were getting the snot kicked out of them there. Basically 'no way are we sending our folks there to die'.
Anyway, enough about the war. Just consider that we have a whole appeals process before we can execute a person, but to start a war we just need a bunch of a$$hole politicians who may or may not have military experience to say 'hey that sounds like a great idea'.
Technology saves the day - again - no supernatural beings necessary:
Sons save mom overseas with webcam.
Cheap laptops for everyone?
Windup laptops aim to bridge digital divide
Well, I suppose it isn't quite for everyone. Personally, they should charge $150 per laptop in the United States and make it a big seller this year. Take the extra $50 (assuming these folks are smart enough to be flush with money from $100) and give out free laptops instead of $100 laptops.
The wind-up laptop looks pretty neat to me - and if it is basically an internet only type of machine with basic functionality - I think it would be great as a second or third machine. It would also be a great advertising opportunity for Linux - the operating system I think will be on these laptops.
But you know, they'll probably only make them available in 3rd world countries and ignore the possibilities. Hell people in the US pay four times as much for a cell phone sometimes, people.
News in General
Sony's DRM woes expand to include copyright infringement
Now, Sony is a big company and they have a really big screw-up on their hands with their RootKit using DRM software.
I'm a programmer, and I've got to believe that Sony can at least afford to pay top-notch programmers. But apparently, they have a buch of coders that steal open-source code for commercial purposes! I mean, these guys didn't even bother to write their own software for playing MP3s.
This is nuts. I'm tempted to never by Sony stuff again after noting the things they are willing to try to protect themselves and the well poor quality in their ethics practices in using GPU license code and hiring people that can't code for crap when obviously they have money for coding.
Well, maybe after all the lawsuits settle they won't have so much money and they'll have to hire good people for more money instead of morons for $1.50 an hour.
Standard war for next DVD discs.
Blu-Ray snubs HP
Well, I hate to say this, but this whole argument about the next DVD standard is really moot. Yeah yeah yeah - higher quality DVD content for HDTV. You know - that's just not that important to me. New DRM built-in to the disks - either by Blu-Ray or HD-DVD - well, folks its hard for me to get exciting about something that is a benefit to the producers of content and not to me.
Its like getting excited about PMI on my house. Ooooh exciting I'm paying insurance so that when I go under financially the banks will have my mortgage fully paid off - but does this help me in any way - no - mortgage gets paid off and I'm still out of a house and probably a job.
Real nice. I can't wait for the cracks to come out for the new DRM these guys dream up. I think people copy DVD's now just because they can and because they are thumbing their nose at the 'man' than for any other reason. Commercial pirates - you know those folks should fry. But if I want to make a laugh/funny group of cuts from movies - how come its friggin impossible? If I want to do anything just for fun using these folks content - I'd have to spend thousands of dollars - probably more.
If I was selling that stuff, it'd be different, but you know these people are morons. They have no marketing sense. If I did make a funny movie composed of the actual funny bits of so-called funny movies and people saw it and laughed - that would generate interest and possible sales of those movies.
Review: New 'Potter' tries to do too much
I'll be going to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire today. I'll report what I can about the movie. I'm a big fan of the series, but the last movie was a bit too short given the actual content of the book. I do wish people had the attention spans they used to have during President Lincoln's time. They would go to a debate that lasted 8 hours long. Now its a struggle to get people to sit down for 2.5 hours to watch a movie. Hell, I'd love to see Sci-Fi channel pull off their magic and do a paragraph by paragraph Harry Potter... Oh, it'd be ages long (not the first movie so much, they didn't cut as much from that as the others), but it would be very enjoyable.
Probably have to wait 20 years for them to do something like that - because the people who have the current license for Harry Potter wouldn't let anyone else edge in for that long.
And to point - its probably a few years before the series wraps up in the movies.
By then, who knows - home movie makers may have enough technology to do it justice by themselves.
ok, well I guess that's enough headlines for today. Time to do some real work.
One more thing - anyone that has advice on how to draw anime/manga - feel free to drop me a comment or e-mail message. RhagamYgg@hotmail.com . I have a few story lines I want to write - and I was going to do them as books, but I suspect that the proper medium for them is Manga/Anime.
Alex
CNN:
Suicide bombers kill dozens in 2 Iraqi cities
People appear to die every day in Iraq. The decision is made at some point that killing will acheive your goals or if your goals can be acheived through peaceful initiative. There is little excitement in solving issues through politics... The HERO wants the war - so they can be proclaimed a HERO by all and remembered. In the end, all wars end with politicians and agreements - the Hero's actions a turn in to just a political necessity.
This CNN article is ok - until there is a non sequitur in the middle of the article when they start talking about a democratic Hawk that is now requesting our withdrawal from Iraq. The placement of this paragraph makes the implication that somehow this democrats actions resulted in the attacks and deaths in Iraq.
The next paragraph repeats a White House official calling the democrat - a coward.
A former Vietname Vet - being called a coward - by people that never served.
It is not cowardice to want to back out of an unjust war. Cheney was noted in an article yesterday: Cheney: War critics are opportunists He says senators of both parties saw Hussein as a threat that he considered Democrats opportunists and that they were attempting to revise history.
This is patently untrue. Let's break it down shall we.
Truth - Everyone backed the war at the time we started it. At least in terms of congress and in terms of having enough votes to say - let's go kill some people for the just cause.
Implication that is False - that Democrats are changing their mind on the basis of no new information.
Listen folks, I don't know how to say this any clearer. If we entered the war under false pretenses, we need to apologize to the Iraqi people, today and not 150 years after the fact like we did to the native americans.
No, leaving Iraq immediately is not probably on the list of the top 10 best things to do. Neither, apparently was starting the war in the first place. Suddenly, people are soooo concerned about the USA doing the absolute best possible action when they weren't all that concerned when they started the war in the first place.
Personally, I don't think we should pull out. But, I don't think we should stay there either.
We should pull out because we look a lot like a invader at present.
We should not pull out because Iraq may well fall in to total civil war if we just leave.
There is a solution to this problem, I think. But we need to find a neutral party that is trusted by everyone willing to send their troops in to replace ours.
Problem is, the only neutral parties I can think of don't really maintain much of a military and at this point in time must view sending troops to Iraq like we should have when we started sending troops to Vietnam after the French were getting the snot kicked out of them there. Basically 'no way are we sending our folks there to die'.
Anyway, enough about the war. Just consider that we have a whole appeals process before we can execute a person, but to start a war we just need a bunch of a$$hole politicians who may or may not have military experience to say 'hey that sounds like a great idea'.
Technology saves the day - again - no supernatural beings necessary:
Sons save mom overseas with webcam.
Cheap laptops for everyone?
Windup laptops aim to bridge digital divide
Well, I suppose it isn't quite for everyone. Personally, they should charge $150 per laptop in the United States and make it a big seller this year. Take the extra $50 (assuming these folks are smart enough to be flush with money from $100) and give out free laptops instead of $100 laptops.
The wind-up laptop looks pretty neat to me - and if it is basically an internet only type of machine with basic functionality - I think it would be great as a second or third machine. It would also be a great advertising opportunity for Linux - the operating system I think will be on these laptops.
But you know, they'll probably only make them available in 3rd world countries and ignore the possibilities. Hell people in the US pay four times as much for a cell phone sometimes, people.
News in General
Sony's DRM woes expand to include copyright infringement
Now, Sony is a big company and they have a really big screw-up on their hands with their RootKit using DRM software.
I'm a programmer, and I've got to believe that Sony can at least afford to pay top-notch programmers. But apparently, they have a buch of coders that steal open-source code for commercial purposes! I mean, these guys didn't even bother to write their own software for playing MP3s.
This is nuts. I'm tempted to never by Sony stuff again after noting the things they are willing to try to protect themselves and the well poor quality in their ethics practices in using GPU license code and hiring people that can't code for crap when obviously they have money for coding.
Well, maybe after all the lawsuits settle they won't have so much money and they'll have to hire good people for more money instead of morons for $1.50 an hour.
Standard war for next DVD discs.
Blu-Ray snubs HP
Well, I hate to say this, but this whole argument about the next DVD standard is really moot. Yeah yeah yeah - higher quality DVD content for HDTV. You know - that's just not that important to me. New DRM built-in to the disks - either by Blu-Ray or HD-DVD - well, folks its hard for me to get exciting about something that is a benefit to the producers of content and not to me.
Its like getting excited about PMI on my house. Ooooh exciting I'm paying insurance so that when I go under financially the banks will have my mortgage fully paid off - but does this help me in any way - no - mortgage gets paid off and I'm still out of a house and probably a job.
Real nice. I can't wait for the cracks to come out for the new DRM these guys dream up. I think people copy DVD's now just because they can and because they are thumbing their nose at the 'man' than for any other reason. Commercial pirates - you know those folks should fry. But if I want to make a laugh/funny group of cuts from movies - how come its friggin impossible? If I want to do anything just for fun using these folks content - I'd have to spend thousands of dollars - probably more.
If I was selling that stuff, it'd be different, but you know these people are morons. They have no marketing sense. If I did make a funny movie composed of the actual funny bits of so-called funny movies and people saw it and laughed - that would generate interest and possible sales of those movies.
Review: New 'Potter' tries to do too much
I'll be going to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire today. I'll report what I can about the movie. I'm a big fan of the series, but the last movie was a bit too short given the actual content of the book. I do wish people had the attention spans they used to have during President Lincoln's time. They would go to a debate that lasted 8 hours long. Now its a struggle to get people to sit down for 2.5 hours to watch a movie. Hell, I'd love to see Sci-Fi channel pull off their magic and do a paragraph by paragraph Harry Potter... Oh, it'd be ages long (not the first movie so much, they didn't cut as much from that as the others), but it would be very enjoyable.
Probably have to wait 20 years for them to do something like that - because the people who have the current license for Harry Potter wouldn't let anyone else edge in for that long.
And to point - its probably a few years before the series wraps up in the movies.
By then, who knows - home movie makers may have enough technology to do it justice by themselves.
ok, well I guess that's enough headlines for today. Time to do some real work.
One more thing - anyone that has advice on how to draw anime/manga - feel free to drop me a comment or e-mail message. RhagamYgg@hotmail.com . I have a few story lines I want to write - and I was going to do them as books, but I suspect that the proper medium for them is Manga/Anime.
Alex
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Google Adsense and this Blog
Well, I decided to add Google's Adsense to this Blog. It was not all that hard to do, and it wasn't even something I really did intentionally.
I just logged in to the blog and saw the ad for adsense. Followed it down the path.
Supposedly, adsense searches the blog and only puts ads on it that are related to the content. If it does a good job, please visit the linked ads at the top of this blog.
It could mean money for me - but you know, I'm not going to get my hopes up.
Anyway, the click of the ad on a page does not trigger any monetary gain. It is what you do when you get to the destination web page. If you click a few links on the destination web page it generates some numbers which in turn will generate a few pennies on my side.
So, if the links at the top of the screen look like they are something worth it for you, please by all means click on through and look around on those web sites.
The links there presently are of interest to the programmer in me - the IT business and things like that.
But as I have said in many articles - you need to be as aware as you can of how computers work so that you will not be a victim in a computer run society, but someone that understands what is going on around them.
Alex
I just logged in to the blog and saw the ad for adsense. Followed it down the path.
Supposedly, adsense searches the blog and only puts ads on it that are related to the content. If it does a good job, please visit the linked ads at the top of this blog.
It could mean money for me - but you know, I'm not going to get my hopes up.
Anyway, the click of the ad on a page does not trigger any monetary gain. It is what you do when you get to the destination web page. If you click a few links on the destination web page it generates some numbers which in turn will generate a few pennies on my side.
So, if the links at the top of the screen look like they are something worth it for you, please by all means click on through and look around on those web sites.
The links there presently are of interest to the programmer in me - the IT business and things like that.
But as I have said in many articles - you need to be as aware as you can of how computers work so that you will not be a victim in a computer run society, but someone that understands what is going on around them.
Alex
Recent Articles
Well, two of my most recent articles have been posted on Useless-Knowledge.
Here they are:
This article is about how the idea of Conception being the beginning of life and the rights associated with life would have severe consequences to a great many people.
Considering Life to Begin at Conception
This article was written at the request of another writer - it details the various things people need to do to protect their computer (and themselves) on the web - and the things that can threaten you on the web.
Things You Should Understand About Your Computer and People
Alex
Here they are:
This article is about how the idea of Conception being the beginning of life and the rights associated with life would have severe consequences to a great many people.
Considering Life to Begin at Conception
This article was written at the request of another writer - it details the various things people need to do to protect their computer (and themselves) on the web - and the things that can threaten you on the web.
Things You Should Understand About Your Computer and People
Alex
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Urusei Yatsura - Those Obnoxious Aliens
I have a new favorite show - and it is Urusei Yatsura.
I first discovered it on OnDemand on HBO - the movie "Beautiful Dreamer".
Excellent movie in the Urusei Yatsura universe - but the wrong place to start watching the show - as it appears to be after the TV series.
So, now I am renting through NetFlix - the TV Show DVDs.
Urusei Yatsura is written/drawn by the same person that wrote Inuyasha - another of my favorite shows. Rumiko Takahashi .
Inuyasha a dark and has its own flavor - one so completely different that Urusei Yatsura that it is astonishing that kind of breadth is contained in a single person.
Urusei Yatsura - of all things is a comedy. I suppose it would be considered an 'R' rated comedy by the sad state of United States of America standards. I believe it was originally designed for Japanese Teens and pre-teens.
It is excellent in the incredible amount of humor in the show - and the humor works so well it works even though I've got to read the subtitles.
So, if you are afraid of a little nudity - or teenagers behaving well like teenagers - specifically boys, but a little bit of the girls as well... I'd stay away from this one.
If you have a tolerance for nudity and don't believe it will burn your eyes out and that seeing what people really are like when they are teenages isn't going to degrade your moral values or the future moral values of your current teenager - I highly recommend this series.
And for everyone that is against this sort of thing because it degrades women etc (with the nudity) I remind you very strongly - this story is written by a woman.
Alex
I first discovered it on OnDemand on HBO - the movie "Beautiful Dreamer".
Excellent movie in the Urusei Yatsura universe - but the wrong place to start watching the show - as it appears to be after the TV series.
So, now I am renting through NetFlix - the TV Show DVDs.
Urusei Yatsura is written/drawn by the same person that wrote Inuyasha - another of my favorite shows. Rumiko Takahashi .
Inuyasha a dark and has its own flavor - one so completely different that Urusei Yatsura that it is astonishing that kind of breadth is contained in a single person.
Urusei Yatsura - of all things is a comedy. I suppose it would be considered an 'R' rated comedy by the sad state of United States of America standards. I believe it was originally designed for Japanese Teens and pre-teens.
It is excellent in the incredible amount of humor in the show - and the humor works so well it works even though I've got to read the subtitles.
So, if you are afraid of a little nudity - or teenagers behaving well like teenagers - specifically boys, but a little bit of the girls as well... I'd stay away from this one.
If you have a tolerance for nudity and don't believe it will burn your eyes out and that seeing what people really are like when they are teenages isn't going to degrade your moral values or the future moral values of your current teenager - I highly recommend this series.
And for everyone that is against this sort of thing because it degrades women etc (with the nudity) I remind you very strongly - this story is written by a woman.
Alex
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Recent Articles and Thoughts of More Topics to Write Aboue
Hi Everyone,
It has been a little while since I have written. When life - or work anyway - become more active it is hard to keep up writing on the blog.
Anyway, I have written a few more articles on Useless-Knowledge.
I wrote an article about the need for everyone to have a basic understanding of computer programming.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/oct/article387.html
This is the first article that I have written showing people how to write a simple article:
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article090.html
I wrote an article opposing the idea that these are the 'end-times'. I could probably write more on this topic.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/oct/article317.html
Here is an article about George Bush - regarding the idea that he is basically a paradox... How can he believe that all life began in the basic form that it is now - if he also believes that a bird flu can mutate in to a human variant and kill people? There is of course a lot more detail in the article.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article074.html
This is an article about the foolishness of authors and publishers in thinking that somehow Googles efforts to make all books searchable will harm them. It will by far make the money and increase the ability for people at home to start the research using books - legitimate resources - instead of just the web - where there are a lot of unverified resources out there behaving like factual resources.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article051.html
This is an article discussing the inability for there to be a common ground in terms of ideas in the discussion of Evolution and Intelligent Design. It is similar to comparing a drawing of a car on paper and a car that has been through the design process and completely built and is functioning.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article042.html
I want to write a series of articles on actions that would result in a better election process. Anyone that has thoughts on this - please make a response to this blog entry.
Also, I want to write about the legality of statements made by a certain Fundamentalist Christian Leader - threatening a Pennsylvanian town.
Abwägen
It has been a little while since I have written. When life - or work anyway - become more active it is hard to keep up writing on the blog.
Anyway, I have written a few more articles on Useless-Knowledge.
I wrote an article about the need for everyone to have a basic understanding of computer programming.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/oct/article387.html
This is the first article that I have written showing people how to write a simple article:
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article090.html
I wrote an article opposing the idea that these are the 'end-times'. I could probably write more on this topic.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/oct/article317.html
Here is an article about George Bush - regarding the idea that he is basically a paradox... How can he believe that all life began in the basic form that it is now - if he also believes that a bird flu can mutate in to a human variant and kill people? There is of course a lot more detail in the article.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article074.html
This is an article about the foolishness of authors and publishers in thinking that somehow Googles efforts to make all books searchable will harm them. It will by far make the money and increase the ability for people at home to start the research using books - legitimate resources - instead of just the web - where there are a lot of unverified resources out there behaving like factual resources.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article051.html
This is an article discussing the inability for there to be a common ground in terms of ideas in the discussion of Evolution and Intelligent Design. It is similar to comparing a drawing of a car on paper and a car that has been through the design process and completely built and is functioning.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article042.html
I want to write a series of articles on actions that would result in a better election process. Anyone that has thoughts on this - please make a response to this blog entry.
Also, I want to write about the legality of statements made by a certain Fundamentalist Christian Leader - threatening a Pennsylvanian town.
Abwägen
Sunday, September 25, 2005
More recent articles and looking for a new venue
Hey everyone,
I've written a few more articles that have not been reported on this blog.
One theory I advance on how to reduce gasoline prices. This theory has a lot of side benefits as well, but it is unlikely to be explored by our culture. People have this feeling that they are better than that here in the US. Plus it would change the places people would live (implied) because you wouldn't be able to live so far away from work. I think I have more to say on this subject. I did get two e-mail comments on this article - which is great. They both had criticisms - that I think are not necessarily deal-breakers - but certainly should be noted in any plan to implement my idea.
The Solution To High Gasoline Prices
I wrote an article on the cartoon that I enjoy watching - with my son as well - InuYasha. I don't know why - because I wasn't heavy in to romantic notions when I was younger - but I really like the romance theme in the InuYasha series. I've also seen a movie called Urusei Yastura "Beautiful Dreamer" - that had a heavy romance theme in it. There are lots of moral themes in both shows as well. InuYasha has a heavier candy coating of blood, guts and battles than Urusei Yatsura - but then again that is partially a result of the context of where the shows occur.
I will be renting as much of Urusei Yatsura and InuYasha as I can from Netflix in the coming months and hope to write more about both series - and perhaps television and movies in general and the answer to the question "Why are they important to us?" It would deal a lot with the idea that similarity of experience allows people to understand each other.
InuYasha
It seems that Useless-Knowledge news commentary website has been delisted as news from both yahoo and google news reporting aspects. This is unfortunate. It appears that some articels that people found offensive about Natalee Holloway irked people in to complaining to Yahoo and Google for listing it as news. Censorship works - even from commercial resources. So, now useless-knowledge will have a smaller readership. This is unfortunate.
If everything in society is removed because a small number of people complain about it - there will be very little left. These people have a right to say what they want no matter how offensive it might be to some people. If it really offends you - you have to take action in a just and moral way - not in an immoral way that limits the abilities of other people. The appropriate reaction to people offended by the Natalee Holloway articles is to write articles defending her and her mother and stating that these people are not like that.
But not, oh things are offensive - we need to take free expression from these folks the only way we can. By complaining and having them removed from a forum that allows free expression.
So, anyway, anyone reading this - if you have any news websites or commentary websites that allow people to write articles for them where you wouldn't mind seeing my articles and they might gain some readership - please tell me or put it in the comments here.
I have certainly decided that I like writing in public forums and having my voice heard - when I get good or bad reactions. The reactions in themselves provide with information and learning about our human society and exposure to people that I would not normally (in my working and social life)
Alexander Flynn
I've written a few more articles that have not been reported on this blog.
One theory I advance on how to reduce gasoline prices. This theory has a lot of side benefits as well, but it is unlikely to be explored by our culture. People have this feeling that they are better than that here in the US. Plus it would change the places people would live (implied) because you wouldn't be able to live so far away from work. I think I have more to say on this subject. I did get two e-mail comments on this article - which is great. They both had criticisms - that I think are not necessarily deal-breakers - but certainly should be noted in any plan to implement my idea.
The Solution To High Gasoline Prices
I wrote an article on the cartoon that I enjoy watching - with my son as well - InuYasha. I don't know why - because I wasn't heavy in to romantic notions when I was younger - but I really like the romance theme in the InuYasha series. I've also seen a movie called Urusei Yastura "Beautiful Dreamer" - that had a heavy romance theme in it. There are lots of moral themes in both shows as well. InuYasha has a heavier candy coating of blood, guts and battles than Urusei Yatsura - but then again that is partially a result of the context of where the shows occur.
I will be renting as much of Urusei Yatsura and InuYasha as I can from Netflix in the coming months and hope to write more about both series - and perhaps television and movies in general and the answer to the question "Why are they important to us?" It would deal a lot with the idea that similarity of experience allows people to understand each other.
InuYasha
It seems that Useless-Knowledge news commentary website has been delisted as news from both yahoo and google news reporting aspects. This is unfortunate. It appears that some articels that people found offensive about Natalee Holloway irked people in to complaining to Yahoo and Google for listing it as news. Censorship works - even from commercial resources. So, now useless-knowledge will have a smaller readership. This is unfortunate.
If everything in society is removed because a small number of people complain about it - there will be very little left. These people have a right to say what they want no matter how offensive it might be to some people. If it really offends you - you have to take action in a just and moral way - not in an immoral way that limits the abilities of other people. The appropriate reaction to people offended by the Natalee Holloway articles is to write articles defending her and her mother and stating that these people are not like that.
But not, oh things are offensive - we need to take free expression from these folks the only way we can. By complaining and having them removed from a forum that allows free expression.
So, anyway, anyone reading this - if you have any news websites or commentary websites that allow people to write articles for them where you wouldn't mind seeing my articles and they might gain some readership - please tell me or put it in the comments here.
I have certainly decided that I like writing in public forums and having my voice heard - when I get good or bad reactions. The reactions in themselves provide with information and learning about our human society and exposure to people that I would not normally (in my working and social life)
Alexander Flynn
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Talking to Meme
Meme is the name that my wife and her siblings applied to their grandmother many years ago. That name continues on for her in her role as great-grandmother to my son.
It is good talking with her on the days that she watches my son. It helps me to kick out ideas and she certainly has a different perspective on technology - having lived through the times when technology was such a smaller part of our lives.
There are many things that we have done to our society that reflects back onto us that if we had thought about it - we would have designed things different. Some things as simple as the housing development - need to be re-thought and re-designed for safety, efficiency and reduction of waste.
I'll be writing an article in the future about my design for a community - that would be a better place to live. Something that could be instituted in the hurricane ravaged New Orleans area - if people stop and think instead of run and just rebuild what was once there. Rebuilding what was once there is simply planning for the next event that will destroy the area again.
It is good talking with her on the days that she watches my son. It helps me to kick out ideas and she certainly has a different perspective on technology - having lived through the times when technology was such a smaller part of our lives.
There are many things that we have done to our society that reflects back onto us that if we had thought about it - we would have designed things different. Some things as simple as the housing development - need to be re-thought and re-designed for safety, efficiency and reduction of waste.
I'll be writing an article in the future about my design for a community - that would be a better place to live. Something that could be instituted in the hurricane ravaged New Orleans area - if people stop and think instead of run and just rebuild what was once there. Rebuilding what was once there is simply planning for the next event that will destroy the area again.
Article: iPODs disposable culture
Hi everyone I have written an article about iPODs and focused specifically on the non-user replaceable battery.
People send Apple accolades about design, but neglect the fact that the design could be better, and the focus of apple's design of the iPOD is style and not utilization.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/sept/article304.html
People send Apple accolades about design, but neglect the fact that the design could be better, and the focus of apple's design of the iPOD is style and not utilization.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/sept/article304.html
Friday, September 16, 2005
Easy as riding a bike
Or not.
I am concerned about my health again. It isn't a persistent thing - it is a mostly long term worry that I'll be one of those guys that goes outside and plays with his children and dies shortly afterward from a heart attack.
I can't run without getting horrible shin-splints. So, my thought is, why don't I buy a bicycle and take it out every day to get in to shape.
Only problem is it isn't as simple as go and buy a bike.
#1 at the moment - I do not want to have to assemble the bike. So, perhaps, I will buy one assembled - as many are at Target, Walmart, Toys R us, Dick sporting goods. The problem is that do I really trust any of these guys to put together a bike correctly? At Dick's there was a bike I was almost willing to purchase, but there were things that were not working on it - and that was the case for someone else that rode another bike in the store. That's not good. I do remember as a kid and on to my teens getting bikes from Toys R Us and they all worked appropriately, but I'm not a kid and they may not have a bike for my size (average human male 5' 9" and overweight 190 pounds).
So, I could go to a bike shop. But frankly they scare the crap out of me. I just want to ride something that isn't going to fall apart and will work correctly. I don't want something that weighs 6 ounces and costs 6K? I don't even want something that costs $500 for that matter.
Bleh, we, we'll see if I actually find something to ride. And then... We'll see if I actually ride it enough for it to have been a good purchase. The problem with these expensive bikes is that if I end up riding it only a few times - that could end up being $5 a ride - pretty pricey. If I get a cheap bike and don't ride it - then it will have cost me less per ride.
Of course, the whole point is that I ride the bikes and get in to better shape.
Abwägen
I am concerned about my health again. It isn't a persistent thing - it is a mostly long term worry that I'll be one of those guys that goes outside and plays with his children and dies shortly afterward from a heart attack.
I can't run without getting horrible shin-splints. So, my thought is, why don't I buy a bicycle and take it out every day to get in to shape.
Only problem is it isn't as simple as go and buy a bike.
#1 at the moment - I do not want to have to assemble the bike. So, perhaps, I will buy one assembled - as many are at Target, Walmart, Toys R us, Dick sporting goods. The problem is that do I really trust any of these guys to put together a bike correctly? At Dick's there was a bike I was almost willing to purchase, but there were things that were not working on it - and that was the case for someone else that rode another bike in the store. That's not good. I do remember as a kid and on to my teens getting bikes from Toys R Us and they all worked appropriately, but I'm not a kid and they may not have a bike for my size (average human male 5' 9" and overweight 190 pounds).
So, I could go to a bike shop. But frankly they scare the crap out of me. I just want to ride something that isn't going to fall apart and will work correctly. I don't want something that weighs 6 ounces and costs 6K? I don't even want something that costs $500 for that matter.
Bleh, we, we'll see if I actually find something to ride. And then... We'll see if I actually ride it enough for it to have been a good purchase. The problem with these expensive bikes is that if I end up riding it only a few times - that could end up being $5 a ride - pretty pricey. If I get a cheap bike and don't ride it - then it will have cost me less per ride.
Of course, the whole point is that I ride the bikes and get in to better shape.
Abwägen
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Article: Gay Marriage
I have created a new article that was posted on www.Useless-Knowledge.com .
It is about gay marriage - and references (indirectly) some of the articles that have been on Useless Knowledge on the subject.
Here it is:
Secular Marriage Revisited
Of course, I had my wife edit it and I made some changes - but did I ask my wife to check the edits? No, of course not, that would be the reasonable thing to do.
So, I changed a sentence in the beginning from referencing activities in one state to two states.... But I didn't change the word state to states in the article...
Bleh, first thing I read in the article is something that looks like a grammatical error. Oddly enough, when I read it with the word state it seems to flow ok. I probably would have changed it to states in that first paragraph if I had followed my age-old habit of reading the article out loud before posting it - or have my wife read it to herself and tell me I'm a putz.
It is also the first article I have written that refers directly back to this blog. Hey maybe it will bring in some visitors!
I like seeing that I have had visitors almost as much as I like it when visitors leave a comment behind.
Abwägen
It is about gay marriage - and references (indirectly) some of the articles that have been on Useless Knowledge on the subject.
Here it is:
Secular Marriage Revisited
Of course, I had my wife edit it and I made some changes - but did I ask my wife to check the edits? No, of course not, that would be the reasonable thing to do.
So, I changed a sentence in the beginning from referencing activities in one state to two states.... But I didn't change the word state to states in the article...
Bleh, first thing I read in the article is something that looks like a grammatical error. Oddly enough, when I read it with the word state it seems to flow ok. I probably would have changed it to states in that first paragraph if I had followed my age-old habit of reading the article out loud before posting it - or have my wife read it to herself and tell me I'm a putz.
It is also the first article I have written that refers directly back to this blog. Hey maybe it will bring in some visitors!
I like seeing that I have had visitors almost as much as I like it when visitors leave a comment behind.
Abwägen
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
New Article on Useless-Knowledge
Hey folks.
I have written an article which speaks of my incredible disappointment regarding the ROKR phone created by Motorola and Apple.
Clearly an incremental step (backward) instead of a generational step forward in phone MP3 playing technology.
Apple and Motorola ROKR
Abwägen
I have written an article which speaks of my incredible disappointment regarding the ROKR phone created by Motorola and Apple.
Clearly an incremental step (backward) instead of a generational step forward in phone MP3 playing technology.
Apple and Motorola ROKR
Abwägen
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Another Article Posted to Useless-Knowledge
Here it is:
Katrina's Lesson Responsibility
Hi everyone. I have written an article from a different perspective - about Katrina and responsibility. Responsibility is different than blame. Blame in reality comes from external forces (people and organizations) applied to other forces (other people and organizations). Responsibility is the self - looking at the end results of a situation and understanding that - hey - things wouldn't be this way - at least in part - without my own participation.
I didn't want to make the article partisan - so I left out another aspect of responsibility. The kind of responsibility that comes with being a leader. Just like the Star Trek Movie where Kirk and Bones go to jail because members of their crew assasinated a Klingon leader - our leaders are responsible even if their specific actions were not to blame for the unnecessary deaths, injuries and harm that has come to people.
In a sense though I do not completely accept the "captain is responsible for everyone on the ship". Because everyone on the ship is capable of thinking and taking action. We live in a time where large number of people make fun of George W Bush because of his relative intelligence - nobody anywhere in our government took the intiative to do the things that had to be done.
So, personally, I do not blame the President. This could have happened to any president. The problems in the New Orleans area are based in a tradition - a tradition of ignoring the relatively low-probability events that can cause large amount of damage - because guess what - it didn't happen this year!!!
So, I guess we are all idiots. The point is can we learn from this - or will we just jump back in to the mold afterwards and do the same blame game next time there is a major natural disaster.
Abwägen
Katrina's Lesson Responsibility
Hi everyone. I have written an article from a different perspective - about Katrina and responsibility. Responsibility is different than blame. Blame in reality comes from external forces (people and organizations) applied to other forces (other people and organizations). Responsibility is the self - looking at the end results of a situation and understanding that - hey - things wouldn't be this way - at least in part - without my own participation.
I didn't want to make the article partisan - so I left out another aspect of responsibility. The kind of responsibility that comes with being a leader. Just like the Star Trek Movie where Kirk and Bones go to jail because members of their crew assasinated a Klingon leader - our leaders are responsible even if their specific actions were not to blame for the unnecessary deaths, injuries and harm that has come to people.
In a sense though I do not completely accept the "captain is responsible for everyone on the ship". Because everyone on the ship is capable of thinking and taking action. We live in a time where large number of people make fun of George W Bush because of his relative intelligence - nobody anywhere in our government took the intiative to do the things that had to be done.
So, personally, I do not blame the President. This could have happened to any president. The problems in the New Orleans area are based in a tradition - a tradition of ignoring the relatively low-probability events that can cause large amount of damage - because guess what - it didn't happen this year!!!
So, I guess we are all idiots. The point is can we learn from this - or will we just jump back in to the mold afterwards and do the same blame game next time there is a major natural disaster.
Abwägen
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
The most recent articles on Useless-Knowledge.com
Hello everyone.
I have had a lot to say on the topic of Katrina and its impact on people, society and events. This is the second article I have written on the topic. I have written the third and already sent it in to Useless-Knowledge and eagerly await for user commentary. I have received comments from people and even professionals regarding my articles. Not all of it good, of course, but that is ok.
Anyway, here is the link to my most recent article. Perhaps I'll write more on the topic if there is more to be said, but for now I think I've written enough. :)
Abwägen / Alexander Flynn
A Lesson of Hurricane Katrina - A Hardened Communication Infrastructure Would Have Prevented Death, Suffering and Sorrow
I have had a lot to say on the topic of Katrina and its impact on people, society and events. This is the second article I have written on the topic. I have written the third and already sent it in to Useless-Knowledge and eagerly await for user commentary. I have received comments from people and even professionals regarding my articles. Not all of it good, of course, but that is ok.
Anyway, here is the link to my most recent article. Perhaps I'll write more on the topic if there is more to be said, but for now I think I've written enough. :)
Abwägen / Alexander Flynn
A Lesson of Hurricane Katrina - A Hardened Communication Infrastructure Would Have Prevented Death, Suffering and Sorrow
Time, writing and blogs
Hello everyone - including one day my son perhaps.
I have not written in this blog for some time, but that does not mean that I have been inactive. I have written many articles on a website called Useless-knowledge.
It is a great site and I encourage anyone that feels strongly about something to test their writing skills by writing an article on Useless-knowledge.
In showing my connection with Useless-knowledge I expose my real-world identity and connect it to this blog.
I have some concerns that this blog certainly talks about my philosophical beliefs - which are atheist - and that in some future I might be looking for a job and the potential employer might do a web search and find this blog and my articles and decide they do not want to hire an atheist.
Well, if that is the case with some future employer - so be it.
I will at times write some more on this blog - things that I will not write on Useless-knowledge. After all the topic of this blog is something eventually for my son to read and understand who his father was. Even if I am alive in the future it seems likely that the me of the future will not be the me of the present.
Alexander Flynn
List of Articles written on Useless-knowledge:
(20 articles and Over 20,000 words)
In Regard To Skip And Jack
We Live On A Planet Where There Are Many Religions
The List Of Right Questions
Atheists Are No Joking Matter [I Fear Them]
Faulty Airplane Defense
The Unparalleled Movie Experience
The Unparalleled Movie Experience Part 2
Science Education Controlled By Politics Is Worthless
The Future: Stem Cells
John Bolton: Job Applicant
The Good Man Noah
The Return of the Airship
Toy Review: Teen Titans
City in the Air/ Wherever I May Roam
Terrorism: Source and Solution
The Unparalleled Movie Experience: Coda
Tuberculosis in Africa - an evolutionary danger to us all
Toy Review: Toys You Build With Your Child
Wheelchairs: Inadequate for the Handicapped
Rebuilding New Orleans – The Legacy of Hurricane Katrina
End
I have not written in this blog for some time, but that does not mean that I have been inactive. I have written many articles on a website called Useless-knowledge.
It is a great site and I encourage anyone that feels strongly about something to test their writing skills by writing an article on Useless-knowledge.
In showing my connection with Useless-knowledge I expose my real-world identity and connect it to this blog.
I have some concerns that this blog certainly talks about my philosophical beliefs - which are atheist - and that in some future I might be looking for a job and the potential employer might do a web search and find this blog and my articles and decide they do not want to hire an atheist.
Well, if that is the case with some future employer - so be it.
I will at times write some more on this blog - things that I will not write on Useless-knowledge. After all the topic of this blog is something eventually for my son to read and understand who his father was. Even if I am alive in the future it seems likely that the me of the future will not be the me of the present.
Alexander Flynn
List of Articles written on Useless-knowledge:
(20 articles and Over 20,000 words)
In Regard To Skip And Jack
We Live On A Planet Where There Are Many Religions
The List Of Right Questions
Atheists Are No Joking Matter [I Fear Them]
Faulty Airplane Defense
The Unparalleled Movie Experience
The Unparalleled Movie Experience Part 2
Science Education Controlled By Politics Is Worthless
The Future: Stem Cells
John Bolton: Job Applicant
The Good Man Noah
The Return of the Airship
Toy Review: Teen Titans
City in the Air/ Wherever I May Roam
Terrorism: Source and Solution
The Unparalleled Movie Experience: Coda
Tuberculosis in Africa - an evolutionary danger to us all
Toy Review: Toys You Build With Your Child
Wheelchairs: Inadequate for the Handicapped
Rebuilding New Orleans – The Legacy of Hurricane Katrina
End
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Playful destruction of electronic products
This is just purely informational for my son - if he ever gets the chance to read these blogs when he gets older.
I have always loved to tinker with electronic gadgets. Owning a gadget is just not enough. I want to see what's inside - change what is inside and all sorts of things like that.
I have spent time with RC Cars - and while I couldn't say I'm a cheif engineer or anything like that - I have fun with it.
It seems you like doing stuff like that too. You have tried helping me work on momma's computer on a few occasions and are always quick to grab the screwdriver - even if you don't quite know what to do with it yet.
In the future - who knows what things you'll be able to tinker with. One hopes that you'll have more time to do the things you want than I do.
Abwägen
I have always loved to tinker with electronic gadgets. Owning a gadget is just not enough. I want to see what's inside - change what is inside and all sorts of things like that.
I have spent time with RC Cars - and while I couldn't say I'm a cheif engineer or anything like that - I have fun with it.
It seems you like doing stuff like that too. You have tried helping me work on momma's computer on a few occasions and are always quick to grab the screwdriver - even if you don't quite know what to do with it yet.
In the future - who knows what things you'll be able to tinker with. One hopes that you'll have more time to do the things you want than I do.
Abwägen
PC Case Mod
I have found a new hobby that I enjoy doing. Who knows maybe I'll eve become good at it someday. It is PC case modding. I might even try my hand at overclocking CPU chips if I can get the cooling to work well enough through case mods.
The ultimate mod right now that I want to do - would be to add water cooling to my wife's shuttle computer. There certainly isn't enough room on the inside of the case for the extra equipment, but that doesn't mean that I couldn't mount the radiator, pump and reservoir outside of the case and just send the tubing in to the computer.
There are also complete external units that I might be able to purchase - and just sit it on top of my wife's computer and send the tubing in to do the cooling job. :)
Let's just hope I don't blow anything up.
Abwägen
The ultimate mod right now that I want to do - would be to add water cooling to my wife's shuttle computer. There certainly isn't enough room on the inside of the case for the extra equipment, but that doesn't mean that I couldn't mount the radiator, pump and reservoir outside of the case and just send the tubing in to the computer.
There are also complete external units that I might be able to purchase - and just sit it on top of my wife's computer and send the tubing in to do the cooling job. :)
Let's just hope I don't blow anything up.
Abwägen
Living Will - Living Dead
In recent events a woman who has been brain-dead for 15 years has been part of a vicious struggle between her husband and her parents on pulling the life-support equipment and allowing her to die.
Some people know who I am as I write these blogs. There is little doubt in my mind – that should I become PVS (Persistently Vegetative State) that I should not be kept alive with extreme measures. I would never want the resources of my family to be dedicated to me if there is little chance that I would return to beneficial life.
There have been cases where people have been misdiagnosed with PVS. So, I would hope that people should be certain with multiple doctors’ opinions and backed up with medical proof that certain parts of my brain are no longer functioning and are in fact reduced in capabilities. Even with the possibility of return – I am not sure that after 15 years I would want to return – with probable diminished capacity and likely a family who is in debt for thousands to millions of dollars just keeping me alive.
So, a bunch of laws were made in the hopes of keeping Terri Schiavo alive beyond her body’s ability to keep her alive. Her mind has long since been gone. An opportunity for laws that make sense has been lost.
If enough people think this is an issue – then a law should be made requiring people to indicate their wishes in terms of a living will. Then there would be clarity – at least in regards to the person who is in a coma – of what they would want in those kinds of circumstances. And if you do not fill out a living will there should be defaults in place – in favor of life.
Abwägen
Some people know who I am as I write these blogs. There is little doubt in my mind – that should I become PVS (Persistently Vegetative State) that I should not be kept alive with extreme measures. I would never want the resources of my family to be dedicated to me if there is little chance that I would return to beneficial life.
There have been cases where people have been misdiagnosed with PVS. So, I would hope that people should be certain with multiple doctors’ opinions and backed up with medical proof that certain parts of my brain are no longer functioning and are in fact reduced in capabilities. Even with the possibility of return – I am not sure that after 15 years I would want to return – with probable diminished capacity and likely a family who is in debt for thousands to millions of dollars just keeping me alive.
So, a bunch of laws were made in the hopes of keeping Terri Schiavo alive beyond her body’s ability to keep her alive. Her mind has long since been gone. An opportunity for laws that make sense has been lost.
If enough people think this is an issue – then a law should be made requiring people to indicate their wishes in terms of a living will. Then there would be clarity – at least in regards to the person who is in a coma – of what they would want in those kinds of circumstances. And if you do not fill out a living will there should be defaults in place – in favor of life.
Abwägen
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Thank ???
Whenever people thank god for someone surviving some biological malady - it makes me sick.
There is indeed reason for thanks when anti-biotics save a life.
There is indeed reason for thanks when an air-bag prevents a person from dying in a car accident. An accident that might have killed a person 20 years ago might not even send that person to the hospital now.
There is indeed reason for thanks when a surgery prevents an infected appendix from taking a life.
There is indeed reason for thanks when thousands of people survive and live healthy lives after cancer has struck at them.
There is indeed reason for thanks when computers are used in research that lead to life saving medicines or models of the human body that increase our understanding of our biological selves.
There is indeed a group of people, not god, gods or other supernatural creatures that should be thanked every time a life is saved, injury is prevented or our lives are in general better than they were in the past.
Thanks the scientists - who work every day to learn more about everything. Some of that everything is learning about the human body and creating new defenses for humanity against the many maladies that can strike at the human body.
Thank the engineers who work together as a group to create airbags in cars, safety glass, reflectors on the roads, better signal lights and tires that have better traction in the rain.
You can even thank the people that make laws for mandating that there be fire escapes on buildings.
Thank the computer scientists and engineers that constantly wear away at the barriers of computing speed.
But don't thank god. God and religion have always sided squarely on the side of keeping things they way they are. Knowledge is not something to be feared. In fact, it is unfortunate that Adam had to be tricked in to eating the apple from the tree of Knowledge of Good And Evil. Adam and every person should make the choice willingly to eat from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil - to do otherwise is to be a child - and earn only the responsibilities of a child.
Knoweldge - has a Good and Evil side to it. It all depends on how we apply it. Knowledge of Quantum Mechanics which travels down through Albert Einstein has enabled humanity to make remarkable computers. Knowledge of the General and Spacial Theory of Relativity endowed us with the ability to make nuclear weapons.
Increasingly in our society people are becoming anti-technology. They are becoming Luddites and are against scientific progress.
To them I say - you are hypocrites. It is only by the existence of technology that we live at all. The logistics of getting food from place to place, the engineering of tractor-trailer trucks to carry that food efficiently, the designing of traffic light systems that work appropriately. All of this is due to technology.
If you remove technology from our current context - many things would fail. Our ability to have food. Distribution of medicines that extend our lives. Our governments ability to communicate with itself, our people and other governments.
There is increasingly only one path for us to follow - as our population grows. Technology and Science.
So, thank a scientist the next time you go to the doctor and they provide you with medicine to quell high blood pressure.
Thank an engineer for making your car safe, relatively efficient and capable.
Thank the existence of computers for the many advances in science, engineering and design that make our lives safer.
But do not thank god, gods or other supernatural entities. They did not want this. We are responsible for ourselves and our future. The best way for us to take care of ourselves in the future is to become more knowledgeable about ourselves and our universe. And there is only one path to more knowledge of this sort - science and technology.
No amount of praying is going to produce an anti-biotic. No amount of praying is going to help us ensure that everyone in the world has the capability of having a meal when they need it.
But scientists can produce anti-biotics and medicines.
And people, like you and me are responsible for making it so everyone that wants to eat, can (unless of course they are a fashion model and have no wish to eat on a regular basis).
So, I say my thanks for my Thanksgiving Turkey pre-maturely this year.
Thank the truck driver for bringing the turkey to the supermarket.
Thank the engineer who designed the truck to be more efficient, safe and reliable now than they have ever been in the past.
Thank the scientists for creating medicines helping the people I love live longer lives and more thanksgivings to enjoy.
Thank the computer engineers and scientists for designing computers to help us better understand ourselves and make sure there are even more Thanksgivings to enjoy.
Thank the people who make laws for allowing traffic lights to regulate traffic - so that there is not anarchy on the streets and unnecessary deaths on the roads.
And god who is a supernatural, omnipotent, omniscient entity can take care of himself.
Abwägen
There is indeed reason for thanks when anti-biotics save a life.
There is indeed reason for thanks when an air-bag prevents a person from dying in a car accident. An accident that might have killed a person 20 years ago might not even send that person to the hospital now.
There is indeed reason for thanks when a surgery prevents an infected appendix from taking a life.
There is indeed reason for thanks when thousands of people survive and live healthy lives after cancer has struck at them.
There is indeed reason for thanks when computers are used in research that lead to life saving medicines or models of the human body that increase our understanding of our biological selves.
There is indeed a group of people, not god, gods or other supernatural creatures that should be thanked every time a life is saved, injury is prevented or our lives are in general better than they were in the past.
Thanks the scientists - who work every day to learn more about everything. Some of that everything is learning about the human body and creating new defenses for humanity against the many maladies that can strike at the human body.
Thank the engineers who work together as a group to create airbags in cars, safety glass, reflectors on the roads, better signal lights and tires that have better traction in the rain.
You can even thank the people that make laws for mandating that there be fire escapes on buildings.
Thank the computer scientists and engineers that constantly wear away at the barriers of computing speed.
But don't thank god. God and religion have always sided squarely on the side of keeping things they way they are. Knowledge is not something to be feared. In fact, it is unfortunate that Adam had to be tricked in to eating the apple from the tree of Knowledge of Good And Evil. Adam and every person should make the choice willingly to eat from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil - to do otherwise is to be a child - and earn only the responsibilities of a child.
Knoweldge - has a Good and Evil side to it. It all depends on how we apply it. Knowledge of Quantum Mechanics which travels down through Albert Einstein has enabled humanity to make remarkable computers. Knowledge of the General and Spacial Theory of Relativity endowed us with the ability to make nuclear weapons.
Increasingly in our society people are becoming anti-technology. They are becoming Luddites and are against scientific progress.
To them I say - you are hypocrites. It is only by the existence of technology that we live at all. The logistics of getting food from place to place, the engineering of tractor-trailer trucks to carry that food efficiently, the designing of traffic light systems that work appropriately. All of this is due to technology.
If you remove technology from our current context - many things would fail. Our ability to have food. Distribution of medicines that extend our lives. Our governments ability to communicate with itself, our people and other governments.
There is increasingly only one path for us to follow - as our population grows. Technology and Science.
So, thank a scientist the next time you go to the doctor and they provide you with medicine to quell high blood pressure.
Thank an engineer for making your car safe, relatively efficient and capable.
Thank the existence of computers for the many advances in science, engineering and design that make our lives safer.
But do not thank god, gods or other supernatural entities. They did not want this. We are responsible for ourselves and our future. The best way for us to take care of ourselves in the future is to become more knowledgeable about ourselves and our universe. And there is only one path to more knowledge of this sort - science and technology.
No amount of praying is going to produce an anti-biotic. No amount of praying is going to help us ensure that everyone in the world has the capability of having a meal when they need it.
But scientists can produce anti-biotics and medicines.
And people, like you and me are responsible for making it so everyone that wants to eat, can (unless of course they are a fashion model and have no wish to eat on a regular basis).
So, I say my thanks for my Thanksgiving Turkey pre-maturely this year.
Thank the truck driver for bringing the turkey to the supermarket.
Thank the engineer who designed the truck to be more efficient, safe and reliable now than they have ever been in the past.
Thank the scientists for creating medicines helping the people I love live longer lives and more thanksgivings to enjoy.
Thank the computer engineers and scientists for designing computers to help us better understand ourselves and make sure there are even more Thanksgivings to enjoy.
Thank the people who make laws for allowing traffic lights to regulate traffic - so that there is not anarchy on the streets and unnecessary deaths on the roads.
And god who is a supernatural, omnipotent, omniscient entity can take care of himself.
Abwägen
Scope and reduction Part II
Our energy consumption - is partly due to inefficiency.
One of those inefficienies is regarding transformer power-supplies. If if they are not plugged in to anything or the item they are plugged in to is not in use - turns out that many of them continue to draw power.
A simple mandate that all transformers for electronic devices - not draw power when they are not plugged in to a device or when that device is turned off - would reduce our power draw - and in the end our consumption of fuels to create electricity and the corresponding pollution created by consuming those fuels.
But once again, this kind of thing does not work - unless the entire industry complies - and typically the industry does not comply unless there is a governmental mandate that they must make transformers that do not draw power when they are not feeding an electronic object power is created.
Abwägen
One of those inefficienies is regarding transformer power-supplies. If if they are not plugged in to anything or the item they are plugged in to is not in use - turns out that many of them continue to draw power.
A simple mandate that all transformers for electronic devices - not draw power when they are not plugged in to a device or when that device is turned off - would reduce our power draw - and in the end our consumption of fuels to create electricity and the corresponding pollution created by consuming those fuels.
But once again, this kind of thing does not work - unless the entire industry complies - and typically the industry does not comply unless there is a governmental mandate that they must make transformers that do not draw power when they are not feeding an electronic object power is created.
Abwägen
Scope and reduction Part I
The environment is affected by the many things that we do. Even small things that we do - we do en masse - millions of people.
Millions of people buy computers.
Millions of people leave them on all the time.
Just a slight modification to our behavior patters and a slight increase of cost of computers and resources that are used and gone forever could be resources - well never used or vastly reduced in usage.
Consider, that the average computer really uses about as much power as 1 to 3 lightbulbs. Not including the monitor.
There are solar cells that produce enough power computers a significant portion of the time. And they could potential have surplus power during the day to charge batteries to run the computer on in to the night.
One person a lone doing this is not enough to affect our energy usage.
A small group of people or even a large group of people implementing this kind of existing technology is not enough to change our environment footprint and our energy usage.
But an executive mandate - that all new computers be sold with an adequate solar cell and that cell must be used to power the computer (not the monitor) - would really reduce the power usage of our society.
In fact, such a reduction could reduce power demands to the extent of affecting prices by reducing demand for fuel to create electricity.
Something to think about anyway. It is fairly unlikely that anyone would take any action on such an idea. Certainly not to the level of actually changing our society to make things better for everyone.
Abwägen
Millions of people buy computers.
Millions of people leave them on all the time.
Just a slight modification to our behavior patters and a slight increase of cost of computers and resources that are used and gone forever could be resources - well never used or vastly reduced in usage.
Consider, that the average computer really uses about as much power as 1 to 3 lightbulbs. Not including the monitor.
There are solar cells that produce enough power computers a significant portion of the time. And they could potential have surplus power during the day to charge batteries to run the computer on in to the night.
One person a lone doing this is not enough to affect our energy usage.
A small group of people or even a large group of people implementing this kind of existing technology is not enough to change our environment footprint and our energy usage.
But an executive mandate - that all new computers be sold with an adequate solar cell and that cell must be used to power the computer (not the monitor) - would really reduce the power usage of our society.
In fact, such a reduction could reduce power demands to the extent of affecting prices by reducing demand for fuel to create electricity.
Something to think about anyway. It is fairly unlikely that anyone would take any action on such an idea. Certainly not to the level of actually changing our society to make things better for everyone.
Abwägen
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Things I would like to see in the future Part IV
And end to organized religion.
People have the right to believe in whatever it is that they want to believe. That needs t o be straight. I do not advocate and never will advocate the destruction, ethnic cleansing, or any other terms that essentially mean the elimination of people that do not believe whatever the ruling group of people believe or do not belong to the group that is appropriate at that time.
People can read their scriptures and decide what they believe and what they do not believe and how that impacts how they should act in regards to other people on their own.
The only reason for the existence of organized religion is so that 'mouthpieces' of god/goddess/gods can make their will apparent to the populace.
Well, I say that if any of these gods are worth their salt they should have no trouble making it clear to their adherents what exactly they want without the middle man present.
Too often have I heard and seen the actions of people that are either directed or influenced by the so-called representatives of god(s) cause harm to people.
It seems at present that the sole purpose of organized christians in the United States of America is to limit everyone else in the country to doing only what the organized christians think is right.
They attempt to 'persuade' people that they have a higher moral ground and that is why we need to do things their way instead of the secular way.
There have been many times when the populace has allowed the organized religions to have power in their governments. Devine right rules litter the historical landscape.
And our little devine right president is making our government more of a tool for the organized religions every day.
He has made it so that every department of our government can give money to organized religions while at the same time removing the restrictions on the use of that money for only one purpose - to increase the strength of the organized religions in the United States of America.
You say - hey that is not a bad thing? Well, yes it is...
1) Organized religion is on the decline in the United States - while the religiousness of the population is on the rise. The reasons for this are complex, but it is quite clear that people do not need to be part of an organized religion to be religious. This effort by Bush Jr. has the goal of putting as many of those religious people under his umbrella to make the great white Christian America that people seem to think existed in the 1950's (it didn't).
2) There was a time where religion caused riots in the major cities in the United States - because the local governments were controlled by protestants and there were catholic minorities that were affected. Is this the kind of behavior we want to encourage? But the past is being 'cleansed' and it gets harder and harder to find information on these riots that occurred in Philadelphia not too long ago, historically speaking.
3) You may be a religious person, but which religion is exactly going to be in control when the United States becomes a divine right state? Well, judging by the current president - better be ready for a fundamentalist state.
4) Religion and science are rather unfortunately on organizational levels - incompatible. The stronger religion is in the world (organized religion) the more they squelch research. The reason is quite clear - with every scientific breakthrough - at least on an organization level - it seems that science leaves less space for a god or gods to be necessary. I am not saying that a person cannot be religious and a scientist. I am saying that a dogmatic member of organized religion has no interest in they why things work or how they work - after all god did it and if we needed to know why or how god would explain it to humanity.
Organizations are particularly dumb, and religious organizations are worse. There is nothing in any of the religions that actually says you need some hierarchical structure in reference to how people worship on Earth. But heirarchy is inherent in organizational structure - as is the inability of people that are members of organized religions to question their leaders decisions and perhaps appeal them. I fear that one day some religious leader will say 'I have a list of unbelievers - go forth and convert them or else!' and well, I'd be up a creek at that point.
And this isn't some kind of irrational fear. Religious leaders make all kinds of weird statements - sometimes that they are forced to take back - like 'Satan is on Earth now and he is a Jew' some famous fundamentalist preacher said and then recanted.
But like any recantation - people can read quite squarely that if he didn't mean it - he wouldn't have said it. He recanted so that he would avoid being demonized by the rest of the population.
http://slate.msn.com/id/45483/
-
Just imagine idiots like this in control of our government - and using vast amounts of government money for their own pursuit of religious 'freedom' - where you are free to be what they want you to be and that is final.
http://www2.davidduke.com/index.php?p=6
Abwägen
People have the right to believe in whatever it is that they want to believe. That needs t o be straight. I do not advocate and never will advocate the destruction, ethnic cleansing, or any other terms that essentially mean the elimination of people that do not believe whatever the ruling group of people believe or do not belong to the group that is appropriate at that time.
People can read their scriptures and decide what they believe and what they do not believe and how that impacts how they should act in regards to other people on their own.
The only reason for the existence of organized religion is so that 'mouthpieces' of god/goddess/gods can make their will apparent to the populace.
Well, I say that if any of these gods are worth their salt they should have no trouble making it clear to their adherents what exactly they want without the middle man present.
Too often have I heard and seen the actions of people that are either directed or influenced by the so-called representatives of god(s) cause harm to people.
It seems at present that the sole purpose of organized christians in the United States of America is to limit everyone else in the country to doing only what the organized christians think is right.
They attempt to 'persuade' people that they have a higher moral ground and that is why we need to do things their way instead of the secular way.
There have been many times when the populace has allowed the organized religions to have power in their governments. Devine right rules litter the historical landscape.
And our little devine right president is making our government more of a tool for the organized religions every day.
He has made it so that every department of our government can give money to organized religions while at the same time removing the restrictions on the use of that money for only one purpose - to increase the strength of the organized religions in the United States of America.
You say - hey that is not a bad thing? Well, yes it is...
1) Organized religion is on the decline in the United States - while the religiousness of the population is on the rise. The reasons for this are complex, but it is quite clear that people do not need to be part of an organized religion to be religious. This effort by Bush Jr. has the goal of putting as many of those religious people under his umbrella to make the great white Christian America that people seem to think existed in the 1950's (it didn't).
2) There was a time where religion caused riots in the major cities in the United States - because the local governments were controlled by protestants and there were catholic minorities that were affected. Is this the kind of behavior we want to encourage? But the past is being 'cleansed' and it gets harder and harder to find information on these riots that occurred in Philadelphia not too long ago, historically speaking.
3) You may be a religious person, but which religion is exactly going to be in control when the United States becomes a divine right state? Well, judging by the current president - better be ready for a fundamentalist state.
4) Religion and science are rather unfortunately on organizational levels - incompatible. The stronger religion is in the world (organized religion) the more they squelch research. The reason is quite clear - with every scientific breakthrough - at least on an organization level - it seems that science leaves less space for a god or gods to be necessary. I am not saying that a person cannot be religious and a scientist. I am saying that a dogmatic member of organized religion has no interest in they why things work or how they work - after all god did it and if we needed to know why or how god would explain it to humanity.
Organizations are particularly dumb, and religious organizations are worse. There is nothing in any of the religions that actually says you need some hierarchical structure in reference to how people worship on Earth. But heirarchy is inherent in organizational structure - as is the inability of people that are members of organized religions to question their leaders decisions and perhaps appeal them. I fear that one day some religious leader will say 'I have a list of unbelievers - go forth and convert them or else!' and well, I'd be up a creek at that point.
And this isn't some kind of irrational fear. Religious leaders make all kinds of weird statements - sometimes that they are forced to take back - like 'Satan is on Earth now and he is a Jew' some famous fundamentalist preacher said and then recanted.
But like any recantation - people can read quite squarely that if he didn't mean it - he wouldn't have said it. He recanted so that he would avoid being demonized by the rest of the population.
http://slate.msn.com/id/45483/
-
Just imagine idiots like this in control of our government - and using vast amounts of government money for their own pursuit of religious 'freedom' - where you are free to be what they want you to be and that is final.
http://www2.davidduke.com/index.php?p=6
Abwägen
Things I would like to see in the Future Part III
Three words. Adjustable Penis Size.
You know, I suspect that a lot of the nudity taboos come from insecurity among males due to penis size or the lack thereof.
It is very weird because rarely do females base their mate decision solely on the basis of penis size.
And right now, there are women out there with adjustable breast sizes. Instead of silicone implants - they actually have inflatable breast implants.
Some men that are older and need a little help, actually have an adjustable penis already. Although perhaps this is not so much adjustable as inflatable to their appropriate size.
So, all I am saying is that society in general would improve if we were a little less sensitive about nudity and penis size were less of a perceived factor with males.
Skin is very adaptable and stretches. There was a case where a kid was hit by a car while on rollerblades. It shattered both of his legs. Some of the surgery they were performing was to restore some of his lost height - by stretching the legs and replacing the lost bone. This implies that at least as much could be done with the penis.
I do suspect that it was a painful process for the boy to go through. And it would probably be even more painful due to the sensitivity of the penis.
But hey, some people would think it is worth it.
http://www.mentorcorp.com/breastsurgery/augmentation/cs_ba_prod_adjust.htm
http://kyw.com/health/local_story_040192402.html
http://abcnews.healthology.com/webcast_transcript.asp?b=abcnews&f=erectile_dysfunction&c=urology_pumpdecision&spg=FID
Abwägen
You know, I suspect that a lot of the nudity taboos come from insecurity among males due to penis size or the lack thereof.
It is very weird because rarely do females base their mate decision solely on the basis of penis size.
And right now, there are women out there with adjustable breast sizes. Instead of silicone implants - they actually have inflatable breast implants.
Some men that are older and need a little help, actually have an adjustable penis already. Although perhaps this is not so much adjustable as inflatable to their appropriate size.
So, all I am saying is that society in general would improve if we were a little less sensitive about nudity and penis size were less of a perceived factor with males.
Skin is very adaptable and stretches. There was a case where a kid was hit by a car while on rollerblades. It shattered both of his legs. Some of the surgery they were performing was to restore some of his lost height - by stretching the legs and replacing the lost bone. This implies that at least as much could be done with the penis.
I do suspect that it was a painful process for the boy to go through. And it would probably be even more painful due to the sensitivity of the penis.
But hey, some people would think it is worth it.
http://www.mentorcorp.com/breastsurgery/augmentation/cs_ba_prod_adjust.htm
http://kyw.com/health/local_story_040192402.html
http://abcnews.healthology.com/webcast_transcript.asp?b=abcnews&f=erectile_dysfunction&c=urology_pumpdecision&spg=FID
Abwägen
Things I would like to see in the Future Part II
There is something that I hold particularly close in my mind that I would be enthusiastic about.
I want to be able to change the color of my skin. My skin color is currently a fairly generic brown. Few things do I find more interesting if I could have green skin for a year or blue or red or even multiple different colors for all over my body.
I am not talking about tatoos. Way too permenant.
It would be interesting to see people that look truly different - from day to day. And I am talking about change that would be on the temporary but genetic level. Or even technological level but not something that washes off.
Some people might choose to have skin embedded with Chlorphyll and be green - so that they would not need to eat as many calories during the summer.
If the color change of skin could be managed quickly and without high health risks I could imagine a time where due to politics people would change the color of their skin to show devotion to or for a cause.
In the end, when we have this level of mastery over our appearance discrimination on the basis of race would rapidly become history. Who could tell what race you were if you could change the way you look on a daily or even hourly basis?
Overall, though, order is so oppressive in a species. I mean, how boring can humanity be - the way it is now? Ooooh I think he's a slightly browner brown than he is. Or oohhhh that person has really white skin (not really though) or that person has really black skin (but not really, though).
In the beginning though it might spur off a new discrimination - those for and against changing the colors of your skin. I'm sure they'll have things like - oh its gonna damage your skin and stuff like that on the side of the against. Probably some religious freaks running around telling people how they shouldn't mark their skin because its the mark of the devil (even though many of those people will be wearing tatoos).
Later, though, when it is proven that such changes are not harmful (because if they are harmful what good are they?) - humanity might be a somewhat interesting species to observe and be a part of than the humdrum species that it is now.
Abwägen
I want to be able to change the color of my skin. My skin color is currently a fairly generic brown. Few things do I find more interesting if I could have green skin for a year or blue or red or even multiple different colors for all over my body.
I am not talking about tatoos. Way too permenant.
It would be interesting to see people that look truly different - from day to day. And I am talking about change that would be on the temporary but genetic level. Or even technological level but not something that washes off.
Some people might choose to have skin embedded with Chlorphyll and be green - so that they would not need to eat as many calories during the summer.
If the color change of skin could be managed quickly and without high health risks I could imagine a time where due to politics people would change the color of their skin to show devotion to or for a cause.
In the end, when we have this level of mastery over our appearance discrimination on the basis of race would rapidly become history. Who could tell what race you were if you could change the way you look on a daily or even hourly basis?
Overall, though, order is so oppressive in a species. I mean, how boring can humanity be - the way it is now? Ooooh I think he's a slightly browner brown than he is. Or oohhhh that person has really white skin (not really though) or that person has really black skin (but not really, though).
In the beginning though it might spur off a new discrimination - those for and against changing the colors of your skin. I'm sure they'll have things like - oh its gonna damage your skin and stuff like that on the side of the against. Probably some religious freaks running around telling people how they shouldn't mark their skin because its the mark of the devil (even though many of those people will be wearing tatoos).
Later, though, when it is proven that such changes are not harmful (because if they are harmful what good are they?) - humanity might be a somewhat interesting species to observe and be a part of than the humdrum species that it is now.
Abwägen
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Firefox browser
I've just loaded this web browser over the past week. It is fairly easy to use - and has some bonuses compared to IE 6.0. Primarily this involves security. But as a very good second, I have notices that the memory footprint of Firefox is about half that of Internet Explorer and the download to install Firefox was 5 MB, where I think I have loaded patches to IE 6.0 that were that large.
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Things I would like to see in the Future Part I
Just a list here - of things I would like to see in the future. Perhaps my son in some future might read it and get some ideas of what his father was like. These are in no particular order.
1. Humanity travelling to other planets in the solar system as easily as we now travel across oceans to other continents.
2. Humanity meeting an alien species in some form. Alien being specific to non-Earth solar system organisms containing a similar or higher intelligence than humanity.
3. People check their religious beliefs at the door when applying for actions the government of everyone will be a party.
4. People to look up to scientists and hope that the scientists can do things to help make the future a better place.
5. People to understand in general that there is no such thing as perfection. Especially in regard to the human genome. There might be perfect in some particular aspect, but in reality perfect is a paradoxical word - nothing can be perfect because perfect implies perfect in all circumstances. A human who has been genetically modified to live underwater would not be the perfect human design to run a 100 meter race. Genetic modifications to make humanity better should be allowed. If we can improve ourselves on the individual level there is a chance that as a species we can improve.
6. A president that understands the ecological problems confronting our world - and is willing to use presidential orders to ensure that we minimize our impact on the environment.
a) A presidential order that states if inventions are created that would clearly improve the standard of live for people in general or vastly reduce the environmental impact of humans on Earth - these items are part of the publics best interest and cannot be purchased by a company and squelched from existence. I remember a ultrasonic clothes washer that I saw on the TV show beyond 2000 - and the fact that it would not be coming to the United States because some major manufacturer purchased the design and had no designs on bringing the chemically free clothes washer to market. Imagine, all the clothes detergent that would go not made, and not pollute our environment if it was brought to market. Al the fuel savings because none of those detergents would need to be transported. Waste of pollution, of time and lives for things that are not necessary - and for what - so people can make money helping other people have clean clothes.
b) A presidential order mandating that significant fuel savings via new technology must be implemented by automotive companies within a specific time frame. I do not see why 90% of consumer vehicles at this point in time cannot be hybrids. The savings goes beyond individual households saving money on fuel. Imagine millions of households not consuming as much gasoline this year as they did last year - vastly reducing the demand for gasoline. Prices would go down of gasoline, there would be less pollution in the air and the United States would be on the road to gasoline independence.
c) A presidential mandate that employees not go to physical workplaces whenever possible - to be enforced and audited by the government. Programmers, accountants and other people should almost never go to the work place. Businesses should help defray the costs of home offices and help people be able to work the vast majority of the time from home. This would also combine with the fuel savings mandate for hybrid vehicles to reduce the demand for gasoline in the United States.
That's all for now.
Abwägen
1. Humanity travelling to other planets in the solar system as easily as we now travel across oceans to other continents.
2. Humanity meeting an alien species in some form. Alien being specific to non-Earth solar system organisms containing a similar or higher intelligence than humanity.
3. People check their religious beliefs at the door when applying for actions the government of everyone will be a party.
4. People to look up to scientists and hope that the scientists can do things to help make the future a better place.
5. People to understand in general that there is no such thing as perfection. Especially in regard to the human genome. There might be perfect in some particular aspect, but in reality perfect is a paradoxical word - nothing can be perfect because perfect implies perfect in all circumstances. A human who has been genetically modified to live underwater would not be the perfect human design to run a 100 meter race. Genetic modifications to make humanity better should be allowed. If we can improve ourselves on the individual level there is a chance that as a species we can improve.
6. A president that understands the ecological problems confronting our world - and is willing to use presidential orders to ensure that we minimize our impact on the environment.
a) A presidential order that states if inventions are created that would clearly improve the standard of live for people in general or vastly reduce the environmental impact of humans on Earth - these items are part of the publics best interest and cannot be purchased by a company and squelched from existence. I remember a ultrasonic clothes washer that I saw on the TV show beyond 2000 - and the fact that it would not be coming to the United States because some major manufacturer purchased the design and had no designs on bringing the chemically free clothes washer to market. Imagine, all the clothes detergent that would go not made, and not pollute our environment if it was brought to market. Al the fuel savings because none of those detergents would need to be transported. Waste of pollution, of time and lives for things that are not necessary - and for what - so people can make money helping other people have clean clothes.
b) A presidential order mandating that significant fuel savings via new technology must be implemented by automotive companies within a specific time frame. I do not see why 90% of consumer vehicles at this point in time cannot be hybrids. The savings goes beyond individual households saving money on fuel. Imagine millions of households not consuming as much gasoline this year as they did last year - vastly reducing the demand for gasoline. Prices would go down of gasoline, there would be less pollution in the air and the United States would be on the road to gasoline independence.
c) A presidential mandate that employees not go to physical workplaces whenever possible - to be enforced and audited by the government. Programmers, accountants and other people should almost never go to the work place. Businesses should help defray the costs of home offices and help people be able to work the vast majority of the time from home. This would also combine with the fuel savings mandate for hybrid vehicles to reduce the demand for gasoline in the United States.
That's all for now.
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Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Space Research on a budget
Every so often ideas percolate up to my mind - that might actually be something useful.
Consider a moment the discoveries brought by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Marvels unknown before its existence have been brought to the scope of human knowledge.
The current HST is living on borrowed time. Soon a gyroscope will fail and it will no longer be usable.
But the designs for the telescope still exist. The infrastructure to build another HST exist.
You might think - for a moment - so what? After all there are new Earth-based telescopes that are now beginning to rival the HST's resolution. Do we really need to replace it?
The answer to that question is a clear no. It would cost a lot of money and deliver no more than the most sophisticated Earth-based telescopes.
But there is a reason why we could and should biuld another HST.
Using the knowledge gained in Deep Space 1 of the ionic drive and automatic navigation and the technology of HST - we can and should build an HST capable of leaving the solar system at as high a speed as we can get it to move.
It may be that Earth-based telescopes are approaching the HST is magnification, but a HST that is located off the plane of our Solar System and far away from the sun would be far more powerful than any near-term Earth-based telescope could hope to achieve.
The sun is like a giant flashlight drowning out the rest of the universe that we can see from Earth and even Earth orbit.
But if we were to launch a new HST powered by an economical ion drive after a significant boost from orbit with chemical rockets - the sun is far dimmer even just outside the orbit of Neptune and Pluto.
Such a telescope on its way out of the solar system could be turned towards Earth to map the Near Earth Objects.
I think it would only require minor modifications to the HST design to make something like this work.
Then, the best thing would be to have two new HSTs. Exiting our solar system from different directions. They would be useful as two telescopes, of course, but combined together they would create a single telescope with incredible clarity of pictures.
Now, that is something to hope for to be done in the future.
Abwägen
Consider a moment the discoveries brought by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Marvels unknown before its existence have been brought to the scope of human knowledge.
The current HST is living on borrowed time. Soon a gyroscope will fail and it will no longer be usable.
But the designs for the telescope still exist. The infrastructure to build another HST exist.
You might think - for a moment - so what? After all there are new Earth-based telescopes that are now beginning to rival the HST's resolution. Do we really need to replace it?
The answer to that question is a clear no. It would cost a lot of money and deliver no more than the most sophisticated Earth-based telescopes.
But there is a reason why we could and should biuld another HST.
Using the knowledge gained in Deep Space 1 of the ionic drive and automatic navigation and the technology of HST - we can and should build an HST capable of leaving the solar system at as high a speed as we can get it to move.
It may be that Earth-based telescopes are approaching the HST is magnification, but a HST that is located off the plane of our Solar System and far away from the sun would be far more powerful than any near-term Earth-based telescope could hope to achieve.
The sun is like a giant flashlight drowning out the rest of the universe that we can see from Earth and even Earth orbit.
But if we were to launch a new HST powered by an economical ion drive after a significant boost from orbit with chemical rockets - the sun is far dimmer even just outside the orbit of Neptune and Pluto.
Such a telescope on its way out of the solar system could be turned towards Earth to map the Near Earth Objects.
I think it would only require minor modifications to the HST design to make something like this work.
Then, the best thing would be to have two new HSTs. Exiting our solar system from different directions. They would be useful as two telescopes, of course, but combined together they would create a single telescope with incredible clarity of pictures.
Now, that is something to hope for to be done in the future.
Abwägen
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Gay Marriage
I do not want to go on this topic in great detail.
Simply put, I believe homosexual people have the right to seek happiness in any form they want to as long as no harm is done directly acutely or chronically to anyone else.
Harm being defined as actual physical trauma or death or even the fundamentalist "destruction of society" angle. Certainly if something were to cause the destruction of society I think any moral person would act to stop that cause.
The fundamentalist and more religious in the United States posit the hypothesis that gay marriage will result in the destruction of the basic social unit of society, the family. With the destruction of the basic unit of society our society itself will be destroyed.
National Geographic published a small item called "Geo Quiz" and the topic is marriage. There are 18 questions - and the answers are also contained on the page. You read the question, attempt to answer it yourself and turn the magazine upside-down and read the answer.
Issue February 2005 - excerpt - National Geographic- page ???
6. What two countries were the first to legalize same-sex marriages?
Answer:
The Netherlands in 2001 and Belgium in 2003.
Now, we can simply test the hypothesis of the fundamentalist - that homosexual marriage will bring about the destruction of society.
Perhaps someone will be helpful out there and provide some solid statistical data to back or refute my assertion that Belgium and the Netherlands appear to be just as stable as they have ever been in modern times.
I certainly have not read any news reports declaring those countries hotbeds of anarchy and lawlessness.
So, approximately 4 years after making homosexual marriage legal in the Netherlands - they seemed to have survived.
And approximately after 2 years of homosexual marriage being legal in Belgium - society seems to be working nicely enough.
There is little information to indicate that allowing homosexual marriage is any more or less detrimental to society than allowing marriage between heterosexual partners.
Abwägen
Added on 2005 02 23:
Here is an article about a book produced by the Pope. In his book and paraphrased in this article is the view that gay marriage is "an ideology of evil" ...
"It is legitimate and necessary to ask oneself if this is not perhaps part of a new ideology of evil, perhaps more insidious and hidden, which attempts to pit human rights against the family and against man," he writes.
Funny, how in the face of direct evidence that gay marriage is niether evil nor detrimental to society the Pope, supposed benevolent representative of a benevolent god, advocates the suppression of an entire group of people and restriction of their rights.
And the reality is that people of religious bent are a mixed group - and there are segments that having this official advocacy of the restriction of rights of a small group of people - will take it that those people should not have rights. And in the extreme some will say that gay people should be removed from existence. (either physically or by re-education - depending on your point of view which one of those is worse).
In the same book, the Pope also makes it sound like abortion is similar to the extermination of the Jews during WWII. Funny how both abortion is legal and in a couple of countries gay marriage is legal - and there is no mass extermination of fetuses or massive failure of society.
People need to recognize when statements contain no validity - no matter how much authority the source claims.
CNN article is here: http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/02/23/pope.book.reut/index.html
Abwägen
Simply put, I believe homosexual people have the right to seek happiness in any form they want to as long as no harm is done directly acutely or chronically to anyone else.
Harm being defined as actual physical trauma or death or even the fundamentalist "destruction of society" angle. Certainly if something were to cause the destruction of society I think any moral person would act to stop that cause.
The fundamentalist and more religious in the United States posit the hypothesis that gay marriage will result in the destruction of the basic social unit of society, the family. With the destruction of the basic unit of society our society itself will be destroyed.
National Geographic published a small item called "Geo Quiz" and the topic is marriage. There are 18 questions - and the answers are also contained on the page. You read the question, attempt to answer it yourself and turn the magazine upside-down and read the answer.
Issue February 2005 - excerpt - National Geographic- page ???
6. What two countries were the first to legalize same-sex marriages?
Answer:
The Netherlands in 2001 and Belgium in 2003.
Now, we can simply test the hypothesis of the fundamentalist - that homosexual marriage will bring about the destruction of society.
Perhaps someone will be helpful out there and provide some solid statistical data to back or refute my assertion that Belgium and the Netherlands appear to be just as stable as they have ever been in modern times.
I certainly have not read any news reports declaring those countries hotbeds of anarchy and lawlessness.
So, approximately 4 years after making homosexual marriage legal in the Netherlands - they seemed to have survived.
And approximately after 2 years of homosexual marriage being legal in Belgium - society seems to be working nicely enough.
There is little information to indicate that allowing homosexual marriage is any more or less detrimental to society than allowing marriage between heterosexual partners.
Abwägen
Added on 2005 02 23:
Here is an article about a book produced by the Pope. In his book and paraphrased in this article is the view that gay marriage is "an ideology of evil" ...
"It is legitimate and necessary to ask oneself if this is not perhaps part of a new ideology of evil, perhaps more insidious and hidden, which attempts to pit human rights against the family and against man," he writes.
Funny, how in the face of direct evidence that gay marriage is niether evil nor detrimental to society the Pope, supposed benevolent representative of a benevolent god, advocates the suppression of an entire group of people and restriction of their rights.
And the reality is that people of religious bent are a mixed group - and there are segments that having this official advocacy of the restriction of rights of a small group of people - will take it that those people should not have rights. And in the extreme some will say that gay people should be removed from existence. (either physically or by re-education - depending on your point of view which one of those is worse).
In the same book, the Pope also makes it sound like abortion is similar to the extermination of the Jews during WWII. Funny how both abortion is legal and in a couple of countries gay marriage is legal - and there is no mass extermination of fetuses or massive failure of society.
People need to recognize when statements contain no validity - no matter how much authority the source claims.
CNN article is here: http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/02/23/pope.book.reut/index.html
Abwägen
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Food, Waste and poison
Just a quick blog entry to ask a question?
Is the appearance of food worth dying for?
http://www.itv.com/news/britain_1708997.html
Beyond the article about a carcinogen being placed in food to improve appears I want you to think a little deeper about this.
1) All the Dyes in our foods are created; therefore, waste is created in transporting these dyes and in the creation of these dyes - just to make the color of food look "appropriate".
2) We are polluting our bodies with substances that are there solely for the appearance of the food. This can be a non-obvious carcinogen or there are possible allergic reactions or worse - long-term ill-health effects that we simply do not know about at present.
3) Damage to the environment is caused in the creation of these dyes. Either they are formed chemically, in which the by-products of creating these dyes is unknown and could be everywhere - poisoning our environment or they are created through the growth of plants - that would probably be better used either as forested land or growing food that contributes to the human body rather than aids the way our food looks.
Personally, I think that dyes should not be in our food. They are unnecessary.
Abwägen
--Added 2005 02 21
So, now the entire scope of the contaminated foods becomes known.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/PA_NEWCONSUMERDyemo19cancerdye?source=&ct=5
The above article indicates that Crosse and Blackwell worcestor sauce contains an ingredient that is normally used for material objects and coloration - and is illegal for food products.
That sauce was then used by many other food providers - to create their products.
So, I reiterate: coloring of food is not necessary. I personally do not care what color my food is as long as it tastes good. Green macaroni and cheese would at least make things interesting. For even one person to have their lives threatened over the looks of a food product - is rediculous.
I prefer not to be poisened by my food. I prefer not to even have the possibility of being slowly poised by my food exist. This means that artificial coloration of food is not relevant and is indeed a cause for questioning of a people's sanity that coloration of food is more important than health.
Abwägen
Is the appearance of food worth dying for?
http://www.itv.com/news/britain_1708997.html
Beyond the article about a carcinogen being placed in food to improve appears I want you to think a little deeper about this.
1) All the Dyes in our foods are created; therefore, waste is created in transporting these dyes and in the creation of these dyes - just to make the color of food look "appropriate".
2) We are polluting our bodies with substances that are there solely for the appearance of the food. This can be a non-obvious carcinogen or there are possible allergic reactions or worse - long-term ill-health effects that we simply do not know about at present.
3) Damage to the environment is caused in the creation of these dyes. Either they are formed chemically, in which the by-products of creating these dyes is unknown and could be everywhere - poisoning our environment or they are created through the growth of plants - that would probably be better used either as forested land or growing food that contributes to the human body rather than aids the way our food looks.
Personally, I think that dyes should not be in our food. They are unnecessary.
Abwägen
--Added 2005 02 21
So, now the entire scope of the contaminated foods becomes known.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/PA_NEWCONSUMERDyemo19cancerdye?source=&ct=5
The above article indicates that Crosse and Blackwell worcestor sauce contains an ingredient that is normally used for material objects and coloration - and is illegal for food products.
That sauce was then used by many other food providers - to create their products.
So, I reiterate: coloring of food is not necessary. I personally do not care what color my food is as long as it tastes good. Green macaroni and cheese would at least make things interesting. For even one person to have their lives threatened over the looks of a food product - is rediculous.
I prefer not to be poisened by my food. I prefer not to even have the possibility of being slowly poised by my food exist. This means that artificial coloration of food is not relevant and is indeed a cause for questioning of a people's sanity that coloration of food is more important than health.
Abwägen
Friday, February 18, 2005
Posts on Mars exploration
I've decided to eliminate this post. There are other people's names in it (although not their whole names) and I think I shouldn't be posting that information - other people's writings to their names - without explicit permission.
Saturday, February 12, 2005
Heaven
I have problems with the idea of Heaven.
A good article on Heaven and its problems is written by philosopher Michael Martin (whose book I have read "The Big Domino in the Sky") and is located here: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/michael_martin/heaven.html .
Here is a link to "The Big Domino in the Sky"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/1573921114/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/103-4608745-1821468?%5Fencoding=UTF8&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=-SubmissionDate&n=507846
Michael Martin is a philosopher and his work is thorough.
And before I read the whole thing I want to put down my thoughts on Heaven.
#1 : Heaven is basic avoidance of the simple fact that when you die - your consciousness ceases to exist - totally and completely.
#2 : Heaven is a selfish idea. I am not a theist - so perhaps I get the point of life from their perspective wrong - but it certainly seems to me that the point of a theist's life is to get in to Heaven. This shapes what they do in terms of right and wrong. Can anything be morally correct if it is done merely because of the anticipation of future reward? It seems that I need to offer some reason for doing things that are morally correct in place of this idea of Heaven. And I have one. I believe in the human species. I want it to survive - and thrive - and always have a better future than the past. Actions that contribute to the survival of humanity and increase its abilities are morally correct. Things that subtract from the stability of humanity or promise to make the future less able than the present are morally incorrect. (and no, I am not talking about the pursuit of "perfection", please note that there is no such thing as perfection - and that perfection is a juvenile idea at best)
#3 : Heaven offers for no growth of the individual "soul" that goes there. There is little offered about what happens in Heaven. Only that you will be there forever. Perhaps this idea is appealing to some people, but not for me. There is no mention of yet another level above Heaven that the sould in Heaven might aspire to be a part. There is in fact little mention about what "Heaven" might be.
#4 : Heaven - access is allowed or disallowed by the theists god. And we do not know anything about the decision making process of such a god - if that god exists. I can easily think of different "tests" that might be applied to gain access to Heaven. For example, god might want people around him that are not blind followers - because those people use their minds. There was one science fiction story I read where a person died and got to meet god because he was a scientist that discovered something very important about the universe. Later our scientist found out that "god" had existed an unknown amount of time and was tired of existence. It wanted to die, but could not die since the universe was an integral part of itself and its death would result in the end of everything. It ended with the scientist for perfectly benevolent reasons - working to kill god - without destroying the universe.
So, like I said, Heaven is a problematic idea at best - and I am not the only one to say so.
Abwägen
A good article on Heaven and its problems is written by philosopher Michael Martin (whose book I have read "The Big Domino in the Sky") and is located here: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/michael_martin/heaven.html .
Here is a link to "The Big Domino in the Sky"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/1573921114/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/103-4608745-1821468?%5Fencoding=UTF8&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=-SubmissionDate&n=507846
Michael Martin is a philosopher and his work is thorough.
And before I read the whole thing I want to put down my thoughts on Heaven.
#1 : Heaven is basic avoidance of the simple fact that when you die - your consciousness ceases to exist - totally and completely.
#2 : Heaven is a selfish idea. I am not a theist - so perhaps I get the point of life from their perspective wrong - but it certainly seems to me that the point of a theist's life is to get in to Heaven. This shapes what they do in terms of right and wrong. Can anything be morally correct if it is done merely because of the anticipation of future reward? It seems that I need to offer some reason for doing things that are morally correct in place of this idea of Heaven. And I have one. I believe in the human species. I want it to survive - and thrive - and always have a better future than the past. Actions that contribute to the survival of humanity and increase its abilities are morally correct. Things that subtract from the stability of humanity or promise to make the future less able than the present are morally incorrect. (and no, I am not talking about the pursuit of "perfection", please note that there is no such thing as perfection - and that perfection is a juvenile idea at best)
#3 : Heaven offers for no growth of the individual "soul" that goes there. There is little offered about what happens in Heaven. Only that you will be there forever. Perhaps this idea is appealing to some people, but not for me. There is no mention of yet another level above Heaven that the sould in Heaven might aspire to be a part. There is in fact little mention about what "Heaven" might be.
#4 : Heaven - access is allowed or disallowed by the theists god. And we do not know anything about the decision making process of such a god - if that god exists. I can easily think of different "tests" that might be applied to gain access to Heaven. For example, god might want people around him that are not blind followers - because those people use their minds. There was one science fiction story I read where a person died and got to meet god because he was a scientist that discovered something very important about the universe. Later our scientist found out that "god" had existed an unknown amount of time and was tired of existence. It wanted to die, but could not die since the universe was an integral part of itself and its death would result in the end of everything. It ended with the scientist for perfectly benevolent reasons - working to kill god - without destroying the universe.
So, like I said, Heaven is a problematic idea at best - and I am not the only one to say so.
Abwägen
Binoculars
Well, I have probably used my binoculars seven times now. That lowers my cost per use down to around $47.
I find though that the costs in using the binoculars is not complete. That my computer programmer muscles are unable to hold the binoculars still for any significant amount of time.
There are many good things to using the binculars, though. Any reasonably clear night I can take them outside and view Jupiter and its moons. Tonight it was no problem only ten minutes ago to see 4 moons (Io is tough to know about for sure with 10X50s) around Jupiter.
I enjoy sometimes what I consider to be 'lay' observations of the sky. It is interesting to see how many stars there are out there - by looking towards one bright star and seeing that there are tens of stars in that area - just not visible to the naked eye.
It is even more impressive to look at a section of sky that appears to hold nothing at all - and to move back and forth and see hundreds of stars in apparently dark sky.
I understand the HST (Hubble Space Telescope) did something similar in its deep field image - picked a section of sky in which there were no objects - and revealed that indeed there are objects there - just far away and very dim.
I find though that the solar filters I have purchased are not what I could want of them. I would prefer (now with more knowledge) hydrogen alpha filters - that would reveal more of the sun's activities.
Even if I had purchased the better equipment - it seems that we are in the low end of the solar cycle for the kinds of activity that could be observed.
So, perhaps the filters will survive the years - as well as my binoculars - and I will get to see activity on the sun.
Knowing how things get destroyed in my house - I think it more likely that the money will be lost on those items - at some point in time. I will have to observe as often as I can - so that I will have a fair amount of monies worth in the use of my binoculars and the solar filters.
It seems though, that to get real good use out of the binoculars - I need to get a parrallelogram stype mount for my tripod. Then perhaps the stars will not dance so much when I try to observe them.
Abwägen
I find though that the costs in using the binoculars is not complete. That my computer programmer muscles are unable to hold the binoculars still for any significant amount of time.
There are many good things to using the binculars, though. Any reasonably clear night I can take them outside and view Jupiter and its moons. Tonight it was no problem only ten minutes ago to see 4 moons (Io is tough to know about for sure with 10X50s) around Jupiter.
I enjoy sometimes what I consider to be 'lay' observations of the sky. It is interesting to see how many stars there are out there - by looking towards one bright star and seeing that there are tens of stars in that area - just not visible to the naked eye.
It is even more impressive to look at a section of sky that appears to hold nothing at all - and to move back and forth and see hundreds of stars in apparently dark sky.
I understand the HST (Hubble Space Telescope) did something similar in its deep field image - picked a section of sky in which there were no objects - and revealed that indeed there are objects there - just far away and very dim.
I find though that the solar filters I have purchased are not what I could want of them. I would prefer (now with more knowledge) hydrogen alpha filters - that would reveal more of the sun's activities.
Even if I had purchased the better equipment - it seems that we are in the low end of the solar cycle for the kinds of activity that could be observed.
So, perhaps the filters will survive the years - as well as my binoculars - and I will get to see activity on the sun.
Knowing how things get destroyed in my house - I think it more likely that the money will be lost on those items - at some point in time. I will have to observe as often as I can - so that I will have a fair amount of monies worth in the use of my binoculars and the solar filters.
It seems though, that to get real good use out of the binoculars - I need to get a parrallelogram stype mount for my tripod. Then perhaps the stars will not dance so much when I try to observe them.
Abwägen
Friday, February 04, 2005
Case Against God - Part II
In modern times we often live an existence that has paradoxical elements. Elements of different paradigms that are mutually exclusive exist in our daily lives.
Examples of two elements that are from different paradigms are the possibility of alien intelligences and the idea of god.
There are two questions in part II of my Case Against God.
The first one is: Can the idea of god exist in a universe where we believe there might be alien intelligences?
The question comes from the fact that aliens and god come from different paradigms or world views. When the idea of god came in to existence there was no idea that there was anything outside of Earth. God is a transcendent being that exists beyond what is humanly understandable. The idea of aliens comes from the modern technological era. That somewhere out in the universe there are or at least that it is possible that there are alien intelligences.
So, imagine with me for a moment that some of these alien intelligences might be much older than humanity. That indeed their technology might be far advanced of ours that they have abilities that we would consider omnipotent and omniscient.
These Alien intelligences are still subject to ethics. It would be wrong if an alien intelligence of that order came to Earth and wiped out all of humanity. It would be wrong if that alien intelligence forced us in to servitude and made us commit atrocities against one another because of differences in belief.
Something vital happened to our alien intelligence as these hypothetical beings became very powerful. It appears that humans would have difficulty distinguishing between god-like aliens and ‘God’. This is why the two ideas are incompatible.
If ‘God’ exists is it not anything more than an alien being with abilities far in excess of our own?
And would this ‘God’ being be required to be just as ethical and moral as any other being in existence?
And according to all the religious texts and our histories – if ‘God’ exists it is clear that this being is responsible for the inhumane treatment of, well humans?
The second question is: If ‘God’ exists is it responsible for the inhumane treatment of humanity documented in the religious documents as well as the inhumane activities of its followers over the centuries and in to the present?
Right from Adam and Eve you would say that telling someone not to do something is not enough. You would say that the results of making the wrong decision should be clear – just as we do in any action in the present world where a poor decision could result in very bad repercussions. Buy a house – there is a laundry list of paperwork to go through – many which document the penalties and requirements you have as a home owner.
Is it fair to punish people who have done no wrong except be the children of their parents? It is clear that is something that we as a society do not believe is moral. As the cultural beneficiaries of the United States of America should we all be charged with the destruction of the Native American Culture? Should we all be charged with crimes against humanity for jailing thousands of people in California simply because they were Japanese? I certainly did not participate in either of those activities and I think it would be wrong to punish me for actions that in some cases occurred before anyone related to me entered this continent.
Enough.
Abwägen
Examples of two elements that are from different paradigms are the possibility of alien intelligences and the idea of god.
There are two questions in part II of my Case Against God.
The first one is: Can the idea of god exist in a universe where we believe there might be alien intelligences?
The question comes from the fact that aliens and god come from different paradigms or world views. When the idea of god came in to existence there was no idea that there was anything outside of Earth. God is a transcendent being that exists beyond what is humanly understandable. The idea of aliens comes from the modern technological era. That somewhere out in the universe there are or at least that it is possible that there are alien intelligences.
So, imagine with me for a moment that some of these alien intelligences might be much older than humanity. That indeed their technology might be far advanced of ours that they have abilities that we would consider omnipotent and omniscient.
These Alien intelligences are still subject to ethics. It would be wrong if an alien intelligence of that order came to Earth and wiped out all of humanity. It would be wrong if that alien intelligence forced us in to servitude and made us commit atrocities against one another because of differences in belief.
Something vital happened to our alien intelligence as these hypothetical beings became very powerful. It appears that humans would have difficulty distinguishing between god-like aliens and ‘God’. This is why the two ideas are incompatible.
If ‘God’ exists is it not anything more than an alien being with abilities far in excess of our own?
And would this ‘God’ being be required to be just as ethical and moral as any other being in existence?
And according to all the religious texts and our histories – if ‘God’ exists it is clear that this being is responsible for the inhumane treatment of, well humans?
The second question is: If ‘God’ exists is it responsible for the inhumane treatment of humanity documented in the religious documents as well as the inhumane activities of its followers over the centuries and in to the present?
Right from Adam and Eve you would say that telling someone not to do something is not enough. You would say that the results of making the wrong decision should be clear – just as we do in any action in the present world where a poor decision could result in very bad repercussions. Buy a house – there is a laundry list of paperwork to go through – many which document the penalties and requirements you have as a home owner.
Is it fair to punish people who have done no wrong except be the children of their parents? It is clear that is something that we as a society do not believe is moral. As the cultural beneficiaries of the United States of America should we all be charged with the destruction of the Native American Culture? Should we all be charged with crimes against humanity for jailing thousands of people in California simply because they were Japanese? I certainly did not participate in either of those activities and I think it would be wrong to punish me for actions that in some cases occurred before anyone related to me entered this continent.
Enough.
Abwägen
Case Against God - Part I
Case Against God – Part I
There is a massive amount of information regarding the case against deities. There are long arguments between theists and atheists that go through exhaustive detail about philosophies and ethical points.
I am not going to do that. There is plenty of information widely available out there if you want to research the topic. I have no doubt that there are thousands of pages of information on the topic – and all text no graphics.
My premise in this case is quite simple. My philosophy is that people should ask questions and find their own answers and be ethically honest with themselves in those answers. The simple fact that people come out with different answers should not be threatening. The only thing that is threatening to anyone is when answers of a specific type are held by people that believe that no other answers are acceptable.
If you have comments – I request that you stay to the narrow scope of the question.
And here is my first question:
Belief in God is strongly tied to religious writing. In the case of Christianity it is tied to the bible. For Judaism there are the Hebrew Scriptures and the Talmud. For Muslims it is the Koran. The question is simple. The god described in all cases is described with having certain capabilities. Omnipotence, omniscience and is transcendent of humanity. If god has the capabilities of omnipotence and is omniscient how come none of the written documents allegedly produced by god or by humans through the hand of god displays any more knowledge of the universe than people who were living in the times of those writings?
Read the religious writings. Do they provide any evidence that the writer contained any special knowledge that could only have come from an omniscient being that is independently verifiable? If not do we then have to question the authenticity of the writers in being inspired by an omniscient being?
As I indicated in the beginning of this blog – any comments on this particular blog need to stay to the narrow scope of the question. Specifically, is there any evidence in the religious documents of knowledge beyond the knowledge of humanity at the time of its writing?
Abwägen
There is a massive amount of information regarding the case against deities. There are long arguments between theists and atheists that go through exhaustive detail about philosophies and ethical points.
I am not going to do that. There is plenty of information widely available out there if you want to research the topic. I have no doubt that there are thousands of pages of information on the topic – and all text no graphics.
My premise in this case is quite simple. My philosophy is that people should ask questions and find their own answers and be ethically honest with themselves in those answers. The simple fact that people come out with different answers should not be threatening. The only thing that is threatening to anyone is when answers of a specific type are held by people that believe that no other answers are acceptable.
If you have comments – I request that you stay to the narrow scope of the question.
And here is my first question:
Belief in God is strongly tied to religious writing. In the case of Christianity it is tied to the bible. For Judaism there are the Hebrew Scriptures and the Talmud. For Muslims it is the Koran. The question is simple. The god described in all cases is described with having certain capabilities. Omnipotence, omniscience and is transcendent of humanity. If god has the capabilities of omnipotence and is omniscient how come none of the written documents allegedly produced by god or by humans through the hand of god displays any more knowledge of the universe than people who were living in the times of those writings?
Read the religious writings. Do they provide any evidence that the writer contained any special knowledge that could only have come from an omniscient being that is independently verifiable? If not do we then have to question the authenticity of the writers in being inspired by an omniscient being?
As I indicated in the beginning of this blog – any comments on this particular blog need to stay to the narrow scope of the question. Specifically, is there any evidence in the religious documents of knowledge beyond the knowledge of humanity at the time of its writing?
Abwägen
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Star Trek : Too Successful?
Star Trek, its spin-offs and the movies are my favorite form of TV. Most episodes contain symbology of some sort – regarding outlook on humanity, gods and technology. I may not always agree with its symbology; however, it is far better that there be something behind the stories instead of the brain-dead TV that is prominent in our day and age.
By my count (which may not be entirely accurate) at www.startrek.com – there are 698 episodes of Star Trek and its spin-offs covering a vast period of time from 1966 to the present.
Sadly, according to an article I read in PlayBoy of an interview of Jolene Blalock (she plays Sub-Commander T-Pol on Star Trek: Enterprise) shortly there will be no Star Trek producing new shows on TV. While I am sure that the re-runs will go on for quite some time to come – it is not quite the same as looking forward to a new episode and all the unknowns that come along with it.
It is quite possibly also good-bye to TV that has meaningful content for a while as well. Not to say that Star Trek has a monopoly on carrying meaning inside their shows – just that Star Trek tends to put meaningful content in almost every show – even shows that are designed to make the main characters more three-dimensional.
Star Trek may well be a victim of being too successful. The reason I say this is that now there are plenty of shows on TV with heavy science fiction content. There is an entire channel devoted to science fiction. You no longer have only one resource to watch possible futures when watching TV.
In fact the most recent incarnation of Star Trek competes with other science fiction shows. Shows like Smallville and StarGate SG-1.
And in watching the Star Trek shows I noticed something with my son.
He apparently doesn’t really like them. Now he’s only just about turning 22 months old – but he watches and likes other shows, such as StarGate SG-1 and Futurama.
The reason becomes quite clear as I watch the shows. A great deal of the content of Star Trek is dialog – understanding both the characters and the situations they are in – and understanding why they make the decisions they make.
Not a whole lot of action. The air-time given to the starship Voyager is sometimes minimal – that if you didn’t catch the opening credits you might not even see the ship at all.
Star Trek TV shows rarely make the trade-off for content vs. action.
And therein lies the problem with Star Trek today. Now that it has relatively brainless competition with lots of action – I suspect that Star Trek is losing the battle with its competition.
It may well be that Star Trek will need to sleep for a while – until the right factors come in to play again – and a show like Star Trek : Next Generation can be created again.
But the problems may be deeper than just time and creating a new show. It may be that the Star Trek universe is flawed.
In watching the evolution of the show – it appears that human development has ended. In Star Trek : Next Generation – throughout the series it appeared that the Federation and Starfleet were the leaders of our section of the galaxy in terms of technological ability and morality. I mean, where do you take the story from there? You’ve got no-place to go, except downhill. Maybe take a chapter out of Titan A.E. and have invaders from another galaxy destroy the Earth and break up the Federation – so that once again the members of Starfleet have to struggle and can be the underdogs in the battles.
Or maybe we have to journey farther ahead in time – to a point where humanity is in the process of speciation – and a homo sapiens becomes home spacers – a new form of humanity that does not live on planets – and will never see or completely understand life on a planet.
Or maybe Star Trek needs to get dirty. The Federation is so moral and politically correct, that perhaps what is needed is a series about citizens of the Federation that are pirates – and why might pirates in a moral society buck against the masses – and how these people lives might be.
Another problem with the Star Trek universe is its venue. A network channel caters toward political correctness – and technology has always been an enabler of sexual content. What effect do the holographic rooms have on relationships on sexuality? These are topics that would never be explored on a network channel. It may be the next version of Star Trek needs to be a cable-only version – on ShowTime or HBO, where difficult subjects can be worked out.
Star Trek has shown a hopeful place for the future of humanity – one perhaps that is far more hopeful than anyone willing to do an extrapolation of our current civilizations context – and certainly that was the context when Star Trek : The Original Series was created.
But now that we have seen this hopeful future – where does it go from there? Speciation is one possibility – and in a far future what we term as humans may not exist – and perhaps this is not something to be feared as to be welcomed. More like a worm becoming a butterfly.
Then again, changes to our species (naturally occurring) might take centuries to thousands of years. Perhaps the stories really should be about explorers. Stories about explorers willing to set aside their lives on Earth and spend the rest of their lives traveling to the next nearest star.
In the case of Star Trek : Voyager – the crew was set off at a place where in 75 years they might make it back to Earth. The story of effort in attempting to make it home in adverse conditions is a good one. The story of people that make the choice to take a 140 year journey – which they themselves will not survive – for the general improvement of human knowledge – is a storyline full of stories about people living in circumstance vastly unlike and like our own circumstances. It would be a chance to bring children to the forefront of the stories – as well as the time when the children are the leaders of the ship and the adults at the beginning of the story are at an end of their lives. What if a large number of people decided that they did not want to go to their destination solar system? Political division among the crew?
A story line like that could last seven seasons easily. Even if not every episode contained symbolic content. Some of it could be strictly space opera (or soap opera) taking place on a generation ship has new things that it could bring to people.
What happens when a generation starts its journey as top of the hill technology – and 30 years in to its journey it is met by a ship from Earth created 5 years ago that can go 50% faster? Would this happen multiple times during the journey? Do you try to turn back? Or does the generation continue on and become a moving way station for ships flying to and from the destination star system?
Anyway, I would love to see the Star Trek tradition continue – and I wish them luck in creating new stories that are both engaging and talk about morality.
Abwägen
By my count (which may not be entirely accurate) at www.startrek.com – there are 698 episodes of Star Trek and its spin-offs covering a vast period of time from 1966 to the present.
Sadly, according to an article I read in PlayBoy of an interview of Jolene Blalock (she plays Sub-Commander T-Pol on Star Trek: Enterprise) shortly there will be no Star Trek producing new shows on TV. While I am sure that the re-runs will go on for quite some time to come – it is not quite the same as looking forward to a new episode and all the unknowns that come along with it.
It is quite possibly also good-bye to TV that has meaningful content for a while as well. Not to say that Star Trek has a monopoly on carrying meaning inside their shows – just that Star Trek tends to put meaningful content in almost every show – even shows that are designed to make the main characters more three-dimensional.
Star Trek may well be a victim of being too successful. The reason I say this is that now there are plenty of shows on TV with heavy science fiction content. There is an entire channel devoted to science fiction. You no longer have only one resource to watch possible futures when watching TV.
In fact the most recent incarnation of Star Trek competes with other science fiction shows. Shows like Smallville and StarGate SG-1.
And in watching the Star Trek shows I noticed something with my son.
He apparently doesn’t really like them. Now he’s only just about turning 22 months old – but he watches and likes other shows, such as StarGate SG-1 and Futurama.
The reason becomes quite clear as I watch the shows. A great deal of the content of Star Trek is dialog – understanding both the characters and the situations they are in – and understanding why they make the decisions they make.
Not a whole lot of action. The air-time given to the starship Voyager is sometimes minimal – that if you didn’t catch the opening credits you might not even see the ship at all.
Star Trek TV shows rarely make the trade-off for content vs. action.
And therein lies the problem with Star Trek today. Now that it has relatively brainless competition with lots of action – I suspect that Star Trek is losing the battle with its competition.
It may well be that Star Trek will need to sleep for a while – until the right factors come in to play again – and a show like Star Trek : Next Generation can be created again.
But the problems may be deeper than just time and creating a new show. It may be that the Star Trek universe is flawed.
In watching the evolution of the show – it appears that human development has ended. In Star Trek : Next Generation – throughout the series it appeared that the Federation and Starfleet were the leaders of our section of the galaxy in terms of technological ability and morality. I mean, where do you take the story from there? You’ve got no-place to go, except downhill. Maybe take a chapter out of Titan A.E. and have invaders from another galaxy destroy the Earth and break up the Federation – so that once again the members of Starfleet have to struggle and can be the underdogs in the battles.
Or maybe we have to journey farther ahead in time – to a point where humanity is in the process of speciation – and a homo sapiens becomes home spacers – a new form of humanity that does not live on planets – and will never see or completely understand life on a planet.
Or maybe Star Trek needs to get dirty. The Federation is so moral and politically correct, that perhaps what is needed is a series about citizens of the Federation that are pirates – and why might pirates in a moral society buck against the masses – and how these people lives might be.
Another problem with the Star Trek universe is its venue. A network channel caters toward political correctness – and technology has always been an enabler of sexual content. What effect do the holographic rooms have on relationships on sexuality? These are topics that would never be explored on a network channel. It may be the next version of Star Trek needs to be a cable-only version – on ShowTime or HBO, where difficult subjects can be worked out.
Star Trek has shown a hopeful place for the future of humanity – one perhaps that is far more hopeful than anyone willing to do an extrapolation of our current civilizations context – and certainly that was the context when Star Trek : The Original Series was created.
But now that we have seen this hopeful future – where does it go from there? Speciation is one possibility – and in a far future what we term as humans may not exist – and perhaps this is not something to be feared as to be welcomed. More like a worm becoming a butterfly.
Then again, changes to our species (naturally occurring) might take centuries to thousands of years. Perhaps the stories really should be about explorers. Stories about explorers willing to set aside their lives on Earth and spend the rest of their lives traveling to the next nearest star.
In the case of Star Trek : Voyager – the crew was set off at a place where in 75 years they might make it back to Earth. The story of effort in attempting to make it home in adverse conditions is a good one. The story of people that make the choice to take a 140 year journey – which they themselves will not survive – for the general improvement of human knowledge – is a storyline full of stories about people living in circumstance vastly unlike and like our own circumstances. It would be a chance to bring children to the forefront of the stories – as well as the time when the children are the leaders of the ship and the adults at the beginning of the story are at an end of their lives. What if a large number of people decided that they did not want to go to their destination solar system? Political division among the crew?
A story line like that could last seven seasons easily. Even if not every episode contained symbolic content. Some of it could be strictly space opera (or soap opera) taking place on a generation ship has new things that it could bring to people.
What happens when a generation starts its journey as top of the hill technology – and 30 years in to its journey it is met by a ship from Earth created 5 years ago that can go 50% faster? Would this happen multiple times during the journey? Do you try to turn back? Or does the generation continue on and become a moving way station for ships flying to and from the destination star system?
Anyway, I would love to see the Star Trek tradition continue – and I wish them luck in creating new stories that are both engaging and talk about morality.
Abwägen
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