You know you're a read when...

You know you're a reader when thinking of all the books you'll never be able to read makes you want to cry.

The Price of Democracy

The price of democracy is conservatism whenever the collective national I.Q. drops below a certain level.

Interview Answer

I hate this question: What is your greatest weakness? 

Primarily, stupid. Chances are, if I knew of this weakness, I would try to fix it. If it was so crippling or such an important component of my character that I cannot, I doubt it's anything I would want to share with someone who gets a say in whether or not I have a job. Really, it's just a test of your ability to produce bullshit on command.

I've never been able to come up with an answer for it that didn't make me despise myself, so I'd like to go with the following:

What is your greatest weakness? 

My immense penis size. At times, the responsibility weighs heavily.*

*Seriously though, my greatest weakness is my inability to accurately measure things.

E-book reader bill of rights

http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/2011/02/ebookrights.html

Cauliflower, Broccoli, & Colour-Blindness.

Cauliflower is what colour-blind people eat when they aren't careful when buying broccoli.

To: Vegetarians, Vegans.

The lipid hypothesis and vegetarianism/veganism have both been extensively discredited.

http://www.paleonu.com
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Gary-Taubes/dp/1400040787
http://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-Myth-Food-Justice-Sustainability/dp/1604860804


What we are left with is not a genuine, rational, position with any significant scientific support, but a motley collection of undereducated, unqualified, nutritionists desperate to justify the existence of their careers with pathetic arguments from authority and blatant deceit, researchers who cannot distinguish between hard facts and casual correlation and appear to simply have no concept of the difference between correlation and causation. Morally, there is little reason to abandon the consumption of meat: there are numerous compelling reasons to abandon factory-farmed food, but that is an entirely different topic altogether.

In short, read skeptically, and then decide on the correct answer, not on whatever conclusion will make you feel special, or provide ever-so-precious ammunition in your own self-righteous war on the human condition.

Fuck the MPAA/RIAA.

Exactly my thoughts.

Why Religion Should be Confronted

A great article by Victor Stenger is over at the Huffington post.

Why not a Stateless Society?

My post on a forum, in response:

Human nature is not chaotic. We are a very ordered species, having evolved as such by a process of organization perpetuated by the evolutionary advantage that it confers. We instinctively organize ourselves into family units and tribes. The complexity of the modern world has necessitated a larger government with more specialized functions than in the past.

Those who propose anarchy as a solution to the world's ills are offering either a thinly veiled return to agrarian society, or the very frightening prospect of submitting to corporate rule. It is an instinctive, although illogical proposal: Society 1 does not function properly, therefore its opposite system, Society -1 must be adopted instead. 

Corporate Theft

What is theft? Very simply, it is taking something that is not yours from someone else. If you take a chocolate bar, and leave the store without paying, that is theft. A simple concept that has served humanity well. For the most part, there is a strong social stigma against theft: we perceive it as being wrong. (Yes, there is a great deal of ambiguity - a man who steals a loaf of bread from a wealthy merchant to feed his starving children is probably commuting a far less heinous crime than a man who steals money from a child beggar.) And yet today, we allow theft to occur constantly around us, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, all around the world.

I shall be blunt: the world's natural resources do not belong to corporations. Corporate exploitation of natural resources is theft. It is not a business opportunity, nor a potential source of feedstock for the industry that we have grown to love oh-so-much. It is theft, plain and simple: taking what does not belong to you, as I'm sure any six-year old will be quite happy to tell you.

The world's natural resources do not belong to corporations: they belong to the inhabitants of this planet.

The Religion Switch

I have a smart friend, who is quite religious. I'm not quite sure how we ended up friends, but I will attempt to surmise the form that our religious convictions (and lack thereof) play in our relationship: he is a devout Christian, accepting the scripture as not just a form of morality, but morality itself. I, on the other hand, if labels must be applied, am a nihilistic militant atheist. Our conversations tend to be quite interesting as a result. He disowns organized religion, for the most part, but carries the evils of religion along with him: discrimination against homosexuals, is a 610k, and insists that adaptation does occur, but gradual change that can be demonstrated in an organism is not evolution(!).

Now, talking to him about religion and morality is quite odd; it's not the first time that I have observed this phenomenon, but in him it is particularly pronounced. An example of a fairly standard conversation between the two of us is as follows:

Me: Well, what about homosexuality, do you honestly think that it's a sin, or any such garbage?

Him: Yes, the bible says that a man shall not lie with another man.

Me: What about women? Can a woman lie with another women?

Him: No, you have to actually consider the meaning of it, not just the actual words.

Me: Yea, we seem to have to do that a lot, don't we? Well, why is homosexuality immoral?

Him: Well, the bible says that a man shall not lie with another man.

Me: Yes, I know, but why is it a sin?

Him: Because the bible says-

Me: Yes, I'm quite aware of what it says, but do you think it's a sin?

Him: Of course.

Me: Why?

Him: Because the bible says-

Me: I know, but why do you, independently of the bible, consider homosexuality to be a "sin".

Him: But the god is the source of all morality, and the bible is his word.

Me: How do we know that the bible is the word of god?

Him: Well, the bible was written over many years by many different people, and the message is all the same, and there is not a single contradiction in the whole thing.

Me: Yes, there are... well over a hundred, at my last count, and I'm sure that there are many that I've missed.

Him: If god isn't the source of morality, then what is?


I could go on, but I feel quite sure that you get the point. I'm sure that any skeptic of religious dogma has experienced this disconnect before: you're talking to a quite sane person, who seems to look at the world in a way that supports rational thought and scientific inquiry.... and then religion is brought up.

That's when the indoctrination and isolation from alternative points of view and an actual education kicks in. I personally call this "The Religion Switch", as I imagine it as a switch that flips whenever religion is mentioned, which temporarily disables the part of the brain responsible for any actual thought.

Around the Web

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

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


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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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


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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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




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

Wall-Street Shamans

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

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

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

Quote

"I do not agree with a word you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." -- Voltaire

A bit of this

This video is quite worth an honest laugh.

Over at Raj Patel's site, he brought peoples attention to a film about farmer suicides: a slightly upbeat and comical look, but still a very effective medium to transport information. 

http://rajpatel.org/2010/08/16/the-lighter-side-of-farmer-suicides

The Quote.

Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence.

There you go: in a single sentence, Christopher Hitchens has summarized a principle that I always found difficult to express. Inquiries about why I "can't keep my mouth shut." now have a solid answer.

Letters to a young contrarian has had a profound impact on me. It has led me to question my own "resistance" to "popular culture" (read: Apple, energy drinks, and brand-name clothing), and has left me with a bitter taste that insists on recurring every time people dismiss my entire being as "a phase", whether directly and consciously or not.

My deepening respect for Mr. Hitchens though, has been made a sad affair by the most diabolical of medical maladies. If I understood his writing as it was intended to be interpreted, the odds of defeat seemed stacked against him.

One last challenge, it appears, for the face of contrariness and controversy the world round.

What a wonderful police officer.

In the event that anyone hasn't yet seen the video of the officer threatening a bubble-blowing protester with arrest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGMTm3QRwEc&feature=related

Hypocrisy of "Pirates"

I am pro-filesharing.

But that doesn't mean that I have any patience for the hypocrisy that can be found on torrenting sites.

I'm talking about believing that they have some form of "ownership" over what they upload. Yes, as in "that douche copied my torrent." or "don't go to that site, they just copy other people's torrents." 

If you think that someone can own these torrents, then how can you believe that it is morally or legally acceptable to upload the files in the first place? 

Freedom to share information and media is something that should, and will, happen universally, or not at all.

Property

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100804/national/gold_mine_holdout 

I have to say that even I found his refusal to move strange.

That just makes it an even more compelling point: when, or more accurately, why, should the government be able to take a person's property and give it to another individual, or, in this case, a company?

Obviously, there needs to be some sort of balance. If a 1000 kilometer highway has to stop because someone refuses to sell the property that the road passes through, should the government have the power to confiscate it? What if the company just wants it? Is profit a factor, or do the rights of an individual not have a dollar sign attached?