Just been watchin an episode of The Unexplained on Discovery Channel...it was about UFO's.
Now, the tale they told was, of course, Roswell. The funny bit is how the stories kept changing over the years...added to and embellished, one saucer, two saucers, three saucers, no bodies, many bodies, a landing and a bad take off resulting in a crash, a ship being struck by lightning, and many more.
To digress, don't you always find it funny that these are supposedly craft from an advanced civilisation, capable of travel between the stars, of moving through the depths of space at massive velocities...but they just can't seem to handle lightning or a decent take off...
Now, when someone tells you four or five different...radically different, not just little details...versions of the same story, you would start to question the truthfullness of what they were saying, if not outright coughing into your hand "Bullshit!".
Not these people...to them, the basic premise is absolutely true...aliens crashed near Roswell...it doesn't seem to matter to them how the story changes over the years, no matter how much is changed and added to in the story: each change is gleefully accepted without question, seemingly without asking "hang on...didn't you just tell us it was this way? How come now it happened that way...?"
Blind belief is a wonderful thing...
Now I should say straight away...I firmly believe in life on other planets...the odds are just too astronomical for it not to be so. I just don't believe that flying saucers exist.
Oh well...while ever UFO nuts exist, we can all have fun laughing at them...
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
The sun is doing some funny stuff...NASA will speak soon.
Interesting developments happening on our friendly star...NASA is going to hold a press conferance speaking on what they thing is happening.
Here is the link and release below:
NASA to Discuss Conditions on and Surrounding the Sun
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will hold a media teleconference Tuesday, Sept. 23, at 12:30 p.m. EDT, to discuss data from the joint NASA and European Space Agency Ulysses mission that reveals the sun's solar wind is at a 50-year low. The sun's current state could result in changing conditions in the solar system.
Ulysses was the first mission to survey the space environment above and below the poles of the sun. The reams of data Ulysses returned have changed forever the way scientists view our star and its effects. The venerable spacecraft has lasted more than 17 years -- almost four times its expected mission lifetime.
The panelists are:
-- Ed Smith, NASA Ulysses project scientist and magnetic field
instrument investigator, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
-- Dave McComas, Ulysses solar wind instrument principal investigator,
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio
-- Karine Issautier, Ulysses radio wave lead investigator, Observatoire
de Paris, Meudon, France
-- Nancy Crooker, Research Professor, Boston University, Boston, Mass.
Reporters should call 866-617-1526 and use the pass code "sun" to
participate in the teleconference. International media should call
1-210-795-0624.
To access visuals that will the accompany presentations, go to:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/ulysses-20080923.html
Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:
http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio
A fifty year low in solar activity...wonder what effect this will have on our weather?
Here is the link and release below:
NASA to Discuss Conditions on and Surrounding the Sun
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will hold a media teleconference Tuesday, Sept. 23, at 12:30 p.m. EDT, to discuss data from the joint NASA and European Space Agency Ulysses mission that reveals the sun's solar wind is at a 50-year low. The sun's current state could result in changing conditions in the solar system.
Ulysses was the first mission to survey the space environment above and below the poles of the sun. The reams of data Ulysses returned have changed forever the way scientists view our star and its effects. The venerable spacecraft has lasted more than 17 years -- almost four times its expected mission lifetime.
The panelists are:
-- Ed Smith, NASA Ulysses project scientist and magnetic field
instrument investigator, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
-- Dave McComas, Ulysses solar wind instrument principal investigator,
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio
-- Karine Issautier, Ulysses radio wave lead investigator, Observatoire
de Paris, Meudon, France
-- Nancy Crooker, Research Professor, Boston University, Boston, Mass.
Reporters should call 866-617-1526 and use the pass code "sun" to
participate in the teleconference. International media should call
1-210-795-0624.
To access visuals that will the accompany presentations, go to:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/ulysses-20080923.html
Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:
http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio
A fifty year low in solar activity...wonder what effect this will have on our weather?
Saturday, September 20, 2008
A religion of peace? They make it so easy for conspiracy theorists...
I've been doing a bit of trolling around the web, mostly laughing at conspiracy theories about September 11th and other bombings around the world. The way out whacky thoeries of some of these guys just begger belief...some even quote "Occams razor" (basically, the simplest answer is often the correct one), and then go on to list a long, convoluted arguement of intricately linked and highly implausible "facts"...methinks they should go and read a dictionary.
One thing I will say though...I came across a list on such a website which actually had a grain of truth to it...it was about that shining religion of peace, Islam. I'll reproduce it here because I really think it needs to be said:
"* Muslims fly commercial airliners into buildings in New York City. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslim officials block the exit where school girls are trying to escape a burning building because their faces were exposed. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims cut off the heads of three teenaged girls on their way to school in Indonesia. A Christian school. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder teachers trying to teach Muslim children in Iraq. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder over 80 tourists with car bombs outside cafes and hotels in Egypt. No Muslim outrage.
* A Muslim attacks a missionary children's school in India. Kills six. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims slaughter hundreds of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia. Muslims shoot children in the back. No Muslim outrage.
* Let's go way back. Muslims kidnap and kill athletes at the Munich Summer Olympics. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims fire rocket-propelled grenades into schools full of children in Israel. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder more than 50 commuters in attacks on London subways and buses. Over 700 are injured. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims massacre dozens of innocents at a Passover Seder. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder innocent vacationers in Bali. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslim newspapers publish anti-Semitic cartoons. No Muslim outrage
* Muslims are involved, on one side or the other, in almost every one of the 125+ shooting wars around the world. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims beat the charred bodies of Western civilians with their shoes, then hang them from a bridge. No Muslim outrage.
* Newspapers in Denmark and Norway publish cartoons depicting Mohammed. NOW Muslims are outraged, demanding the death by beheading of "those who don't believe Islam is a religion of peace".
Not all Muslims are terrorists.
Virtually all terrorists are Muslims.
As much of a stereotype as that kind of thing is, it is 100% true...we are dealing with a primitive religion which cannot stand any sort of critisism or ridicule, otherwise practitioners with thier heads firmly based in the 1400's will want you dead.
It has been said, even by Koran scholars, that if you read through the Koran and want to find verses which promote peace, you can find them...if you want to promote war and genocide, you can find them too. In this instance, it is pretty much like the Bible. They are just a little more dedicated to the tradition of offing anyone who doesn't believe in them, and the Christian religion has outgrown that sort of thing nowadays, not that it had much of a problem with it in the past...
All religions now need to take a long hard look at themselves...we live in a world of reason and science, showing us more and more about the world every day...it is no use still clinging to a primitive "Don't know how that happened...must have been God/Allah/Buddha/whoever".
It's time that rational people moved on, realised that the Bible and the Koran are interesting literature with an interesting history, but they certainly aren't the inspired word of God, and they certainly don't give us any great number of rules we should base our lives on.
One thing I will say though...I came across a list on such a website which actually had a grain of truth to it...it was about that shining religion of peace, Islam. I'll reproduce it here because I really think it needs to be said:
"* Muslims fly commercial airliners into buildings in New York City. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslim officials block the exit where school girls are trying to escape a burning building because their faces were exposed. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims cut off the heads of three teenaged girls on their way to school in Indonesia. A Christian school. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder teachers trying to teach Muslim children in Iraq. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder over 80 tourists with car bombs outside cafes and hotels in Egypt. No Muslim outrage.
* A Muslim attacks a missionary children's school in India. Kills six. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims slaughter hundreds of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia. Muslims shoot children in the back. No Muslim outrage.
* Let's go way back. Muslims kidnap and kill athletes at the Munich Summer Olympics. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims fire rocket-propelled grenades into schools full of children in Israel. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder more than 50 commuters in attacks on London subways and buses. Over 700 are injured. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims massacre dozens of innocents at a Passover Seder. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder innocent vacationers in Bali. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslim newspapers publish anti-Semitic cartoons. No Muslim outrage
* Muslims are involved, on one side or the other, in almost every one of the 125+ shooting wars around the world. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims beat the charred bodies of Western civilians with their shoes, then hang them from a bridge. No Muslim outrage.
* Newspapers in Denmark and Norway publish cartoons depicting Mohammed. NOW Muslims are outraged, demanding the death by beheading of "those who don't believe Islam is a religion of peace".
Not all Muslims are terrorists.
Virtually all terrorists are Muslims.
As much of a stereotype as that kind of thing is, it is 100% true...we are dealing with a primitive religion which cannot stand any sort of critisism or ridicule, otherwise practitioners with thier heads firmly based in the 1400's will want you dead.
It has been said, even by Koran scholars, that if you read through the Koran and want to find verses which promote peace, you can find them...if you want to promote war and genocide, you can find them too. In this instance, it is pretty much like the Bible. They are just a little more dedicated to the tradition of offing anyone who doesn't believe in them, and the Christian religion has outgrown that sort of thing nowadays, not that it had much of a problem with it in the past...
All religions now need to take a long hard look at themselves...we live in a world of reason and science, showing us more and more about the world every day...it is no use still clinging to a primitive "Don't know how that happened...must have been God/Allah/Buddha/whoever".
It's time that rational people moved on, realised that the Bible and the Koran are interesting literature with an interesting history, but they certainly aren't the inspired word of God, and they certainly don't give us any great number of rules we should base our lives on.
Climate Change? It's always been changing dumb-ass!
OK, time to slaughter the holy cow...
I don't believe in climate change...let me clarify that...I don't believe in any huge amount of human caused climate change.
The simple fact, which anyone who had even opened a geology or paleontology textbook (instead of blindly listening to Al Gore...) could tell you, is that our entire human history, our entire civilisation from the dim beginnings of agriculture and city building, has happened in what, in geological terms, has been a stable and temperate climate in Earths history.
I will clarify that again...it has been an unusually stable and temperate period...usually Earth's climate has been either frozen in one of the regular ice ages, or baking in a global greenhouse. Sorry Greenpeace...sorry Mr Gore...but earths climate has been always changing up and down, from frozen to oven hot.
In fact, anyone who went to school in the 1970's will remember that at that time, the Earths climate had been in an overall cooling trend since the late 1940's. The majority scientific opinion was that we might just be seeing the start of the next long overdue ice age. Now we see the "majority scientific opinion" saying that, because things have been a little warmer, we are seeing the start of runaway global warming.
Sorry, but in both cases, a couple of decades of weather reports don't make for a firm prediction for what is going to happen over the next hundred years.
To look further back in history, we had "The Little Ice Age", a period which came after another period called "The Medieval Warming Period".
That's right, there was a period of warming of the climate, and it had nothing to do with old cars, power stations, or modern industry. Funny that.
Back to the Little Ice Age...it was a period from around the 1600's to the mid 1800's. Glaciers advanced in some parts of Europe, crushing villages, the River Thames and canals and lakes in other parts of Europe froze solid. in the winter of 1780, in the city of New York, the harbour froze, and people were able to walk from Manhatten to Staten Island. All round, things were pretty damn miserable. Without modern record keeping and widespread media attention like we can muster today, we have no idea how many peasants died out in the countryside from the cold and lack of food.
Now, the Medieval Warming Period...it covered a period from about the year 800 to the year 1300. It was, interestingly, following on the heels of, you guessed it, a period called "Dark Ages Cold Period"...
You get my drift...climate has been changing, up and down, warm and cold, even in comparitively recent time periods...who is to say that this current slight (very very slight) increase in temperature is not another natural warming?
Like it or not, the Earth was not designed for our comfort...it is a natural dynamic model, which cares not a jot for what we might like it to do. Here in Australia, there is a lot of concern about The Great Barrier Reef, and what will happen to it in the future...not many people know that the Barrier Reef has only been there for 14,000 years...that's right, not 140,000, not 1.4 million, only a short 14,000 years. Consider: Aboriginal peoples had been here for around 40-odd thousand years before the Barrier Reef even formed, after a "meltwater pulse event" raised sea levels around the world.
As I said...the world and it's wonders aren't put here for our benifit...the world hasn't evolved to suit us, we have evolved to suit the world. Mother Nature is truly a bitch, and she doesn't give a shit about us.
So enjoy the natural wonders of the world while you can...you never know how long they are going to last...all it takes is a volcano eruption in the right spot, or a comet or asteroid impact, and things would change suddenly.
I don't believe in climate change...let me clarify that...I don't believe in any huge amount of human caused climate change.
The simple fact, which anyone who had even opened a geology or paleontology textbook (instead of blindly listening to Al Gore...) could tell you, is that our entire human history, our entire civilisation from the dim beginnings of agriculture and city building, has happened in what, in geological terms, has been a stable and temperate climate in Earths history.
I will clarify that again...it has been an unusually stable and temperate period...usually Earth's climate has been either frozen in one of the regular ice ages, or baking in a global greenhouse. Sorry Greenpeace...sorry Mr Gore...but earths climate has been always changing up and down, from frozen to oven hot.
In fact, anyone who went to school in the 1970's will remember that at that time, the Earths climate had been in an overall cooling trend since the late 1940's. The majority scientific opinion was that we might just be seeing the start of the next long overdue ice age. Now we see the "majority scientific opinion" saying that, because things have been a little warmer, we are seeing the start of runaway global warming.
Sorry, but in both cases, a couple of decades of weather reports don't make for a firm prediction for what is going to happen over the next hundred years.
To look further back in history, we had "The Little Ice Age", a period which came after another period called "The Medieval Warming Period".
That's right, there was a period of warming of the climate, and it had nothing to do with old cars, power stations, or modern industry. Funny that.
Back to the Little Ice Age...it was a period from around the 1600's to the mid 1800's. Glaciers advanced in some parts of Europe, crushing villages, the River Thames and canals and lakes in other parts of Europe froze solid. in the winter of 1780, in the city of New York, the harbour froze, and people were able to walk from Manhatten to Staten Island. All round, things were pretty damn miserable. Without modern record keeping and widespread media attention like we can muster today, we have no idea how many peasants died out in the countryside from the cold and lack of food.
Now, the Medieval Warming Period...it covered a period from about the year 800 to the year 1300. It was, interestingly, following on the heels of, you guessed it, a period called "Dark Ages Cold Period"...
You get my drift...climate has been changing, up and down, warm and cold, even in comparitively recent time periods...who is to say that this current slight (very very slight) increase in temperature is not another natural warming?
Like it or not, the Earth was not designed for our comfort...it is a natural dynamic model, which cares not a jot for what we might like it to do. Here in Australia, there is a lot of concern about The Great Barrier Reef, and what will happen to it in the future...not many people know that the Barrier Reef has only been there for 14,000 years...that's right, not 140,000, not 1.4 million, only a short 14,000 years. Consider: Aboriginal peoples had been here for around 40-odd thousand years before the Barrier Reef even formed, after a "meltwater pulse event" raised sea levels around the world.
As I said...the world and it's wonders aren't put here for our benifit...the world hasn't evolved to suit us, we have evolved to suit the world. Mother Nature is truly a bitch, and she doesn't give a shit about us.
So enjoy the natural wonders of the world while you can...you never know how long they are going to last...all it takes is a volcano eruption in the right spot, or a comet or asteroid impact, and things would change suddenly.
Friday, September 19, 2008
The March Of Religion Map...great use of thousands of years of effort...
http://www.mapsofwar.com/ind/history-of-religion.html
Do yourself a favour, and visit this site...play this movie and see how 5000 years of human history can be wasted on a useless enterprise...
Whole lotta dead guys argueing over who has a better imaginary friend in the sky...
Do yourself a favour, and visit this site...play this movie and see how 5000 years of human history can be wasted on a useless enterprise...
Whole lotta dead guys argueing over who has a better imaginary friend in the sky...
Thursday, September 18, 2008
F-22 Raptor...nice plane...shame the Yanks won't trust Australia with them...
Just been checking out the F22 Raptor fighter...amazingly advanced plane, fantastic specs, and able to break the sound barrier without engagin the afterburner...this is the sort of plane Australia needs to replace the F18 Hornet when the time comes.
The niggling little fact is that when Australia asked the USA if we could buy some pretty please with sugar on top, the Americans said a polite "piss off".
That's right...the country who was asking was not Soviet Russia, not some tin pot little African country run by a despot, not some flakey South American dictatorship, but Australia, a country that has been a firm allie of the USA for more decades than I would care to count...we have stuck by the Yanks through thick and thin, usually being the first to stick up our hand and join in when wars are to be fought. We were the first to respond after September 11th, when our Prime Minister was in Washington visiting the President...Bush said we were off to Afghanistan, we stood up and said "The toothbrush is already packed, George!"
Some people might say it is silly, that it is looking back on a debt in WW2, but to be blunt, if it wasn;t for the USA in the Coral Sea, us Aussies would all be speaking Japanese right now...those of us who were left alive that is...and I don't know about you, but I would hate trying to type this on a Japanese keyboard. So when people who have a grasp of history say "we owe the Yanks our alliegence", it isn't just being a syncophant...we really do owe them something. I would think we have proved our worth over the intervening years by following the US into a series of wars and actions overseas, contributing far more than our small 21 million population could be expected to.
But when it comes to selling technology to us, it appears that we can't be trusted beyond a certain limit.
The sale overseas is banned by federal law in the USA...even a "watered down" non-stealthy version is not for sale to us (but it might be to Japan...go figure...).
So instead of the proven, already in production F22, Australia is going to be stuck with the purchase of F35 joint strike fighters...if they ever get them working properly...they are still in the development stage.
Our new Government is apparently going to review the purchase of the F35, and push American politicians to overturn the export ban, if only for Australia.
Come on Yanks...we let you build MacDonalds everywhere, let us have our planes and show us you remember the debt you owe us from all these years of following you into battle...
The niggling little fact is that when Australia asked the USA if we could buy some pretty please with sugar on top, the Americans said a polite "piss off".
That's right...the country who was asking was not Soviet Russia, not some tin pot little African country run by a despot, not some flakey South American dictatorship, but Australia, a country that has been a firm allie of the USA for more decades than I would care to count...we have stuck by the Yanks through thick and thin, usually being the first to stick up our hand and join in when wars are to be fought. We were the first to respond after September 11th, when our Prime Minister was in Washington visiting the President...Bush said we were off to Afghanistan, we stood up and said "The toothbrush is already packed, George!"
Some people might say it is silly, that it is looking back on a debt in WW2, but to be blunt, if it wasn;t for the USA in the Coral Sea, us Aussies would all be speaking Japanese right now...those of us who were left alive that is...and I don't know about you, but I would hate trying to type this on a Japanese keyboard. So when people who have a grasp of history say "we owe the Yanks our alliegence", it isn't just being a syncophant...we really do owe them something. I would think we have proved our worth over the intervening years by following the US into a series of wars and actions overseas, contributing far more than our small 21 million population could be expected to.
But when it comes to selling technology to us, it appears that we can't be trusted beyond a certain limit.
The sale overseas is banned by federal law in the USA...even a "watered down" non-stealthy version is not for sale to us (but it might be to Japan...go figure...).
So instead of the proven, already in production F22, Australia is going to be stuck with the purchase of F35 joint strike fighters...if they ever get them working properly...they are still in the development stage.
Our new Government is apparently going to review the purchase of the F35, and push American politicians to overturn the export ban, if only for Australia.
Come on Yanks...we let you build MacDonalds everywhere, let us have our planes and show us you remember the debt you owe us from all these years of following you into battle...
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Exorcism...better go see a psychologist.
Just watched a show on the Discovery Channel...it was called "Exorcism, is it real?"
Well, the obvious answer is, NO, but it was interesting all the same.
You had images of poor, gullible, emotionally damaged, and in some cases obviously mentally disturbed people, being scammed by preachers preying on the victims mental state. There were even what was obviously stage hypnotism going on, perpetuating the "demon possession" they believed they had.
The disturbing part was that these troubled people were being treated as if anything that was happening to them was nothing to do with their mental state..."it's the demons", or the old mainstay, "the devil made me do it"...nothing was actually done to address the base problem that these people had. They were being told that whatever pain they were going through, whatever problems they had, it's OK, simply let the preacher lay on hands, let him mumble a bit of pig-latin, let him sprinkle you with some water, and the nasty demons will go away. Well, until next week...oh, and bring money.
Exorcism is based in an ancient world view from the middle ages, when people knew nothing about mental illness, knew nothing about mental disorders, and basically had no idea about how the mind worked. Must be demons. This was perfectly understandable in those times. But now we understand things a lot better...there should be no need for hokey ideas like demons possessing people.
One of the ideas that seemed to come through is that believers seem to want to blame demons, blame satan, blame anything.
The main thing they don't want to face is that humans are capable of true evil...inside every person is a little mental governor, like a rev limiter on a car engine. The comedian Tim Allen puts it best when he says we all have a little lunatic inside us...most of us easily ignore the lunatic, letting him come out sometimes when we do something foolish, but most of us keep the lunatic in control. However, some people, truly evil people, have no idea how to control the lunatic, and let him have free reign.
Most people don't want to face the fact that people like Jeffrey Dahmer, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Ted Bundy, and other evil people great and small, are all just ordinary guys, who have let thier inner lunatic run wild...people don't want to really admit that one step away from thier ordinary everyday life, inside thier very head, lives a true demon who, given it's head, would be capable of evil of a biblical scale.
It was said a while after September 11th that the "Middle East" (pretty broad term...) is very lucky that they didn't do something to truly offend strongly the whole of the Western world, something which had produced a very tiny number of protesters in the west...something like, say, parking a nuke in the middle of London or New York or Rome and destroying those cities utterly...they said that if the right "push" of an extreme enough scale were given, the right "let's just take all those idiots out once and for all, lets do it and the hell with the laws of war", that civilised western man, with all of his technology behind him, could if he wanted to unleash hell on a scale unseen before...religious suicide bombers would have nothing on an angry West, backed by modern science of all sorts, using the full resources of biological, mechanical, and tactical knowhow, all turned to one purpose, the extermination for once and for all of any who stood in thier path. It is a frightening thought what we could be truly capable of if we forgot about our restraint, if we let the lunatic inside do what he wanted to.
Commentators who spoke this disturbing idea might have been on to something...westerners might like to think we are rational, reasoning beings, far above the evils and excesses of those we call our enemies, but just below the surface, waiting for the right trigger, lurks that primitive man sitting around the campfire in a cave hoping the gods bless the hunt tomorrow.
It is up to us to realise that we have progressed beyond this, think rationally, and not look to gods, demons, and the devil when things go wrong.
Well, the obvious answer is, NO, but it was interesting all the same.
You had images of poor, gullible, emotionally damaged, and in some cases obviously mentally disturbed people, being scammed by preachers preying on the victims mental state. There were even what was obviously stage hypnotism going on, perpetuating the "demon possession" they believed they had.
The disturbing part was that these troubled people were being treated as if anything that was happening to them was nothing to do with their mental state..."it's the demons", or the old mainstay, "the devil made me do it"...nothing was actually done to address the base problem that these people had. They were being told that whatever pain they were going through, whatever problems they had, it's OK, simply let the preacher lay on hands, let him mumble a bit of pig-latin, let him sprinkle you with some water, and the nasty demons will go away. Well, until next week...oh, and bring money.
Exorcism is based in an ancient world view from the middle ages, when people knew nothing about mental illness, knew nothing about mental disorders, and basically had no idea about how the mind worked. Must be demons. This was perfectly understandable in those times. But now we understand things a lot better...there should be no need for hokey ideas like demons possessing people.
One of the ideas that seemed to come through is that believers seem to want to blame demons, blame satan, blame anything.
The main thing they don't want to face is that humans are capable of true evil...inside every person is a little mental governor, like a rev limiter on a car engine. The comedian Tim Allen puts it best when he says we all have a little lunatic inside us...most of us easily ignore the lunatic, letting him come out sometimes when we do something foolish, but most of us keep the lunatic in control. However, some people, truly evil people, have no idea how to control the lunatic, and let him have free reign.
Most people don't want to face the fact that people like Jeffrey Dahmer, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Ted Bundy, and other evil people great and small, are all just ordinary guys, who have let thier inner lunatic run wild...people don't want to really admit that one step away from thier ordinary everyday life, inside thier very head, lives a true demon who, given it's head, would be capable of evil of a biblical scale.
It was said a while after September 11th that the "Middle East" (pretty broad term...) is very lucky that they didn't do something to truly offend strongly the whole of the Western world, something which had produced a very tiny number of protesters in the west...something like, say, parking a nuke in the middle of London or New York or Rome and destroying those cities utterly...they said that if the right "push" of an extreme enough scale were given, the right "let's just take all those idiots out once and for all, lets do it and the hell with the laws of war", that civilised western man, with all of his technology behind him, could if he wanted to unleash hell on a scale unseen before...religious suicide bombers would have nothing on an angry West, backed by modern science of all sorts, using the full resources of biological, mechanical, and tactical knowhow, all turned to one purpose, the extermination for once and for all of any who stood in thier path. It is a frightening thought what we could be truly capable of if we forgot about our restraint, if we let the lunatic inside do what he wanted to.
Commentators who spoke this disturbing idea might have been on to something...westerners might like to think we are rational, reasoning beings, far above the evils and excesses of those we call our enemies, but just below the surface, waiting for the right trigger, lurks that primitive man sitting around the campfire in a cave hoping the gods bless the hunt tomorrow.
It is up to us to realise that we have progressed beyond this, think rationally, and not look to gods, demons, and the devil when things go wrong.
Where is the evidence? Skeptics need to know.
I'm sick of all the crap on TV, and the media in general, pushing the idea that homeopaths, psychics, and other assorted new age whackos are actually a firm science with a basis in any sort of reality.
We had the TV show, "The One", which tried to find "Australias best psychic", if there is such a thing. The tests they showed were taken on using the tried and true methods of cold reading, deductive reasoning (finding a kid in the bush), and other simple, mundane methods.
Now I get pay TV hooked up, and start watching supposedly science based channels like Discovery and National Geographic, and what do I see? More psychic claptrap being treated unquestioningly...from specials on Nostradamus, to crap circles (yes, I spelt that right...), to what I hoped was a serious show on ancient Chinese ships which may have travelled around the world. Near the end of the show, they showed an "expert who has found what he believes is evidence of Chinese ships on the western US coastline". Expecting a scientist or at least an archeologist, but instead they showed some knob wandering around dowsing with a couple of wire rods for the ship wreck buried deep under the sand...he was touted as having found gold mines, oil, and other things, and when he bored down with a small drill, he found shreds of wood...and excitedly said it was from the "keel", and other areas...the thing is, they were little shreds of rotted wood...they looked very like, I don't know, bits of driftwood...just like you'd find on any beach anywhere in the world...
Homeopaths peddle water...sorry, very pure water...as medicine. They have even tried to peddle vaccines for serious illnesses! Homeopathy is based on a middle ages view that water somehow has a "memory"...it retains a sign of whatever has been mixed in with it. Seeing as how the supply of water on this planet is a constant, and always has been here in one form or another, I wonder if they realise that the molecules in a glass of water have come in contact with everything from the intestines of a Brontosaurus to every chemical you can think of?
It can be worked out that at the dilutions that homeopaths use, all you would have to do it drop one aspirin in the Pacific Ocean, and you would have a higher concentration of the medicine than in most homeopaths dilutions.
The thing is, if these dowsers, card readers, and associated psychics, ghost whisperers, and hangers-on, really and truly have powers of some sort, and can prove it, then go see James Randi...his organisation has a massive prize for anyone who can turn up and prove it in a controlled test, under conditions mutually agreed to by both parties. I believe the prize is up to a million bucks at present. The Australian Skeptics also have a prize, I think of $100,000, for anyone here who can prove it.
Now, any time anyone has done carefully controlled tests on these people, nothing happens beyond what would be expected to occur from chance. Dick Smith has organised water divining tests, and it has showed nothing, several times. Water divining is more about reading the land...go to a dry-looking property, and read the landscape...if there is a long depression running across the landscape (better if it has a line of trees along it), then try drilling around there for water. No need to wander around muttering with your two bent sticks, no need to take money off desperate farmers.
Psychics claim they have helped police departments look for lost people...Daniel Morcombe here in my home state of Queensland is a perfect example...the poor lost boy, taken several years ago from a bus stop, has been the target of a concerted police and public campaign. However, his family has also been set upon over the years by psychics, wasting police time and annoying the family. Police in missing person cases will follow any lead, no matter how small, and these self-styled experts waste police time by sending them down the wrong path time and time again. No police force in the world has used psychics, and none have ever proved successful when they have put forward thier ideas.
No, sorry...I will withdraw that...there was a case of one psychic who went to a police department in the USA, with details about a missing person...they had details of where the body was, what would be found nearby, and what had happened. The predictions proved 100% accurate...and then the psychic was arrested and charged with murder...nothing like making a correct prediction when you are the one who did it in the first place...
Psychics, tarot card readers, and other assorted gurus, if used for entertainment purposes, are a bit of fun..however, when they start preying on the gullible, the sick, and the desperate families of the missing, they stop being entertainment, and start being something much, much worse.
I will put a couple of links here to the Australian Skeptics and James Randi's website (hope they don't mind).
Do yourself a favor...visit these sites, spend a couple of hours there, and broaden your mind.
http://skeptics.com.au/
http://www.randi.org/
We had the TV show, "The One", which tried to find "Australias best psychic", if there is such a thing. The tests they showed were taken on using the tried and true methods of cold reading, deductive reasoning (finding a kid in the bush), and other simple, mundane methods.
Now I get pay TV hooked up, and start watching supposedly science based channels like Discovery and National Geographic, and what do I see? More psychic claptrap being treated unquestioningly...from specials on Nostradamus, to crap circles (yes, I spelt that right...), to what I hoped was a serious show on ancient Chinese ships which may have travelled around the world. Near the end of the show, they showed an "expert who has found what he believes is evidence of Chinese ships on the western US coastline". Expecting a scientist or at least an archeologist, but instead they showed some knob wandering around dowsing with a couple of wire rods for the ship wreck buried deep under the sand...he was touted as having found gold mines, oil, and other things, and when he bored down with a small drill, he found shreds of wood...and excitedly said it was from the "keel", and other areas...the thing is, they were little shreds of rotted wood...they looked very like, I don't know, bits of driftwood...just like you'd find on any beach anywhere in the world...
Homeopaths peddle water...sorry, very pure water...as medicine. They have even tried to peddle vaccines for serious illnesses! Homeopathy is based on a middle ages view that water somehow has a "memory"...it retains a sign of whatever has been mixed in with it. Seeing as how the supply of water on this planet is a constant, and always has been here in one form or another, I wonder if they realise that the molecules in a glass of water have come in contact with everything from the intestines of a Brontosaurus to every chemical you can think of?
It can be worked out that at the dilutions that homeopaths use, all you would have to do it drop one aspirin in the Pacific Ocean, and you would have a higher concentration of the medicine than in most homeopaths dilutions.
The thing is, if these dowsers, card readers, and associated psychics, ghost whisperers, and hangers-on, really and truly have powers of some sort, and can prove it, then go see James Randi...his organisation has a massive prize for anyone who can turn up and prove it in a controlled test, under conditions mutually agreed to by both parties. I believe the prize is up to a million bucks at present. The Australian Skeptics also have a prize, I think of $100,000, for anyone here who can prove it.
Now, any time anyone has done carefully controlled tests on these people, nothing happens beyond what would be expected to occur from chance. Dick Smith has organised water divining tests, and it has showed nothing, several times. Water divining is more about reading the land...go to a dry-looking property, and read the landscape...if there is a long depression running across the landscape (better if it has a line of trees along it), then try drilling around there for water. No need to wander around muttering with your two bent sticks, no need to take money off desperate farmers.
Psychics claim they have helped police departments look for lost people...Daniel Morcombe here in my home state of Queensland is a perfect example...the poor lost boy, taken several years ago from a bus stop, has been the target of a concerted police and public campaign. However, his family has also been set upon over the years by psychics, wasting police time and annoying the family. Police in missing person cases will follow any lead, no matter how small, and these self-styled experts waste police time by sending them down the wrong path time and time again. No police force in the world has used psychics, and none have ever proved successful when they have put forward thier ideas.
No, sorry...I will withdraw that...there was a case of one psychic who went to a police department in the USA, with details about a missing person...they had details of where the body was, what would be found nearby, and what had happened. The predictions proved 100% accurate...and then the psychic was arrested and charged with murder...nothing like making a correct prediction when you are the one who did it in the first place...
Psychics, tarot card readers, and other assorted gurus, if used for entertainment purposes, are a bit of fun..however, when they start preying on the gullible, the sick, and the desperate families of the missing, they stop being entertainment, and start being something much, much worse.
I will put a couple of links here to the Australian Skeptics and James Randi's website (hope they don't mind).
Do yourself a favor...visit these sites, spend a couple of hours there, and broaden your mind.
http://skeptics.com.au/
http://www.randi.org/
Admit you like the movies that critics hate or which aren't "cool"...!
Waterworld, The Postman, Tron, ET, Planet of the Apes (with Mark Walberg), Thunderbirds (the new version), Supernova, Sunshine, Barb Wire, and a dozen others.
Go on people...admit it...what are the movies you really honestly enjoy, but that the critics and media hate?
I love Waterworld...it's a great movie, Dennis Hopper hams it up amazingly well, a true over-the-top strong man leading a bunch of suitably whacko bad guys.
I love The Postman...another underrated film, panned widely by critics, yet it tells an original storyline.
I usually base my movie watching decisions on critics reports...if they hate it, I make it a point of going to see it as soon as possible.
Not many people seem to remember, but there were actually some critics reports back when ET came out, which panned it for being childish, overly sentimental, unrealistic (it was a sci-fi film you wankers...), and with a poor story line.
After it started making millions at the box office, critics started to reappraise it, and I bet you couldn't find one now who would admit being amongst those few who hated it.
Who else will come out and admit that they actually like the movies that most people hate?
Go on people...admit it...what are the movies you really honestly enjoy, but that the critics and media hate?
I love Waterworld...it's a great movie, Dennis Hopper hams it up amazingly well, a true over-the-top strong man leading a bunch of suitably whacko bad guys.
I love The Postman...another underrated film, panned widely by critics, yet it tells an original storyline.
I usually base my movie watching decisions on critics reports...if they hate it, I make it a point of going to see it as soon as possible.
Not many people seem to remember, but there were actually some critics reports back when ET came out, which panned it for being childish, overly sentimental, unrealistic (it was a sci-fi film you wankers...), and with a poor story line.
After it started making millions at the box office, critics started to reappraise it, and I bet you couldn't find one now who would admit being amongst those few who hated it.
Who else will come out and admit that they actually like the movies that most people hate?
Gun Laws show their worth.
OK, I always knew that the gun laws brought in back in the 1990's were a farce...they punished and banned law abiding shooters and hunters from owning many different types of firearm, while allowing criminals, drug producers, and other scum to do whatever they want. This is what comes from not realising that "breaking the law" is the top of the job description of a crook.
Now in the central Queensland coastal city of Rockhampton, the local army cadets were simply trying to update thier replica, and I stress REPLICA, firearms which are used for training and ceremonial purposes. They wanted to move from the old .303 rifle, which dates back to WW1, and get the modern Steyr light machine gun, which the army uses now. This was so they can use the same techniques and methods as the army, with REAL guns, uses.
The problem is that the local police have said the army cadets are not allowed to buy these replicas. They are, believe it or now, classed the same under the law as THE REAL THING!
That's right...plastic replica firearms are classed the same as full-auto firing machine guns which the army uses.
This shows the basic wrongness of the gun laws...the gun laws...hell, ANY laws...should be aimed at the people who break them, while creating a minimum of disturbance to the normal man-in-the-street. Sporting shooters have always said, make it a more serious offence before the law if you use a firearm in the commission of a crime. Say that the statutes say that you should face around 2 years in jail for a robbery...if you use a firearm to threaten the person, then automatically make it 6 years.
Of course, this is assuming that the usual soft crap doesn't happen in the court...we have all seen stupid cases where someone commits a horrible crime, is "sentenced to 10 years jail", yet further down the news column they reveal "eligble for payrole in 3 years...less with good behavior."
How the hell does that work? If you are sentenced to 10 years, you should get 10 years MINIMUM.
Any time anyone brings up the idea of minimum, not "maximum" sentencing, as it takes away the idea of "leniancy and taking other things into consideration by the judge"...hey buddy, stiff shit...if you don't want to do the time, try not breaking the law asshole!!!
So on the one hand, we have law abiding young people who have volunteered to do thier bit for thier country and stay off the streets are getting shafted by stupid restrictions on a simple replica firearm to further thier training with, and on the other, we have criminals who are allowed to virtually do whatever they like, while knowing they will face a minimal sentence if they do get caught.
Great message to young people and a prime example of how our legal system works...
Now in the central Queensland coastal city of Rockhampton, the local army cadets were simply trying to update thier replica, and I stress REPLICA, firearms which are used for training and ceremonial purposes. They wanted to move from the old .303 rifle, which dates back to WW1, and get the modern Steyr light machine gun, which the army uses now. This was so they can use the same techniques and methods as the army, with REAL guns, uses.
The problem is that the local police have said the army cadets are not allowed to buy these replicas. They are, believe it or now, classed the same under the law as THE REAL THING!
That's right...plastic replica firearms are classed the same as full-auto firing machine guns which the army uses.
This shows the basic wrongness of the gun laws...the gun laws...hell, ANY laws...should be aimed at the people who break them, while creating a minimum of disturbance to the normal man-in-the-street. Sporting shooters have always said, make it a more serious offence before the law if you use a firearm in the commission of a crime. Say that the statutes say that you should face around 2 years in jail for a robbery...if you use a firearm to threaten the person, then automatically make it 6 years.
Of course, this is assuming that the usual soft crap doesn't happen in the court...we have all seen stupid cases where someone commits a horrible crime, is "sentenced to 10 years jail", yet further down the news column they reveal "eligble for payrole in 3 years...less with good behavior."
How the hell does that work? If you are sentenced to 10 years, you should get 10 years MINIMUM.
Any time anyone brings up the idea of minimum, not "maximum" sentencing, as it takes away the idea of "leniancy and taking other things into consideration by the judge"...hey buddy, stiff shit...if you don't want to do the time, try not breaking the law asshole!!!
So on the one hand, we have law abiding young people who have volunteered to do thier bit for thier country and stay off the streets are getting shafted by stupid restrictions on a simple replica firearm to further thier training with, and on the other, we have criminals who are allowed to virtually do whatever they like, while knowing they will face a minimal sentence if they do get caught.
Great message to young people and a prime example of how our legal system works...
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Richard Dawkins is my Hero.
OK, it's time it was said, nowadays the public idolise people who run around playing games and sports, calling them heroes and stars and worthy of adulation.
You are playing a damn game...go have fun, show us how good you are, but don't expect us to treat you like kings and queens for taking recreation to a higher level.
You wanna know who I idolise and look up to? People who make me think. People who make us all think. People who find cures for diseases, people who open new doors of science and who show us the wonder and beauty of the world and the universe on any scale from the flagellar motor of a bacteria to the large scale layout of a galaxy or a supernova.
These are the people who need our adulation, need our funding, and need our respect. I still long to see a serious T-shirt saying something about a scientific discovery.
Lately, as I have been sitting in my locomotive cabin waiting for the train to load, I have been reading a lot. The book have read twice lately is "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins.
Here is a man who is making us think, making us consider that there just might be something a little odd about blindly believing in an imaginary friend in the sky who at any moment might chuck a hissy fit and strike down a city of men, women, and children dead in a moment.
As Professor Dawkins says in his fine book, the people who believe in the literal truth of the bible have most likely never read the whole damn thing.
I have read the Bible twice...the second time I read it because I couldn't believe half of what I had read the first time through. The joke labels are you can print out to paste on bibles at the library are absolutely true: the labels say "Parental warning: contains violence, sex, nudity, incest, genocide, murder, rape, slavery, and occult themes".
If we are to take the literal truth of the Bible, the God of the Old Testament is a ruthless, egomaniacal, psychopathic, capricious lunatic who only requires your total and complete adulation, or he will do something nasty to you, your family, your dog, and your entire civilisation if he is really pissed off.
I should point out that I was a good boy and went to Sunday school, went to church each week (although when I was small, I do recall it was to play quietly with the Matchbox SuperKing Ford wagon that our neighbor used to bring in the pocket of his suit...that little shelf behind the pew really came in handy.) I was even a member of the Presbeterian Order Of Knights,
My "conversion" came at a time I can recall even to this day. I had always been a science nut, absorbing every book and article I could find. My highest marks were in science and physics at school, and I loved astronomy as well. My parents, to thier eternal credit, never pushed any kind of religious extremism on me or tried to dissuade me from my enthusiam for science and evolution. I seem to have grown up with a pretty firm moral base even though I was never a bible-thumping christian soldier.
In 1982, I was 17 years old and a member of a Presbeterian youth group...at one of these meetings, my outlook on religion was to change. Truth be told, me and most of the other guys there were in it for the pretty girls, friendship, outings, and to show off our hot cars.
There used to be a prayer each week, and sometimes bible lessons which were mostly harmless. One evening, as we were sitting around talking about some bible story, one of the girls mentioned that they had visited a national park where they were shown aboriginal paintings. They were told that they were around 25,000 years old. I merely nodded, but then came the words which changed my outlook. This pretty, clear headed, and otherwise intelligent girl then said "But of course we just giggle and knew that couldn't be right". I was puzzled, and asked why. She looked me right in the eye and said "Well, we all know the Earth is only 6000 years old, so those painting can't be that old."
In that instant, my brain gave a little jolt...I was honestly stunned and lost for words...I stammered out a reply, saying "Umm...yes it is...they carbon date stuff found there and work out the age." I still didn;t really grasp what she was saying...her sister chimed in to agree, and several others around the circle all nodded blindly in agreement.
Then one of the others said, "Carbon dating doesn't work...do you know they killed a seal once near a science place in Canada and carbon dated it to see how old it was, and it said it was over 300 years old?".
Now, at that time, I didn't know enough about the little details of carbon dating to know that an error of 300 years is nothing...when you are dating stuff hundreds of thousands of years old, 300 years is nothing. Then again, I might have been aware, but I was too stunned to use it as a comeback.
That was the turning point...I knew then that here was a group of people who I was firm friends with, who were educated, intelligent people, a couple who had been my girlfriends, yet I knew nothing about them.
They were based in a world view that meant that they believed the world was younger than some of the Bristlecone Pine trees, younger than the domestication of the dog, and only a little older than the pyramids.
Now I know to look at the truth and beauty of the world around me, to look into the stars through my telescope and know that some of those stars I look at have light which left while mankind was living in caves, and that all the animals and plants we see are related all the way back to a common ancestor, down a long chain of evolution and a series of trial and error, with the fittest surviving.
Use your brains, people, and read a damn book...start with The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins...
You are playing a damn game...go have fun, show us how good you are, but don't expect us to treat you like kings and queens for taking recreation to a higher level.
You wanna know who I idolise and look up to? People who make me think. People who make us all think. People who find cures for diseases, people who open new doors of science and who show us the wonder and beauty of the world and the universe on any scale from the flagellar motor of a bacteria to the large scale layout of a galaxy or a supernova.
These are the people who need our adulation, need our funding, and need our respect. I still long to see a serious T-shirt saying something about a scientific discovery.
Lately, as I have been sitting in my locomotive cabin waiting for the train to load, I have been reading a lot. The book have read twice lately is "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins.
Here is a man who is making us think, making us consider that there just might be something a little odd about blindly believing in an imaginary friend in the sky who at any moment might chuck a hissy fit and strike down a city of men, women, and children dead in a moment.
As Professor Dawkins says in his fine book, the people who believe in the literal truth of the bible have most likely never read the whole damn thing.
I have read the Bible twice...the second time I read it because I couldn't believe half of what I had read the first time through. The joke labels are you can print out to paste on bibles at the library are absolutely true: the labels say "Parental warning: contains violence, sex, nudity, incest, genocide, murder, rape, slavery, and occult themes".
If we are to take the literal truth of the Bible, the God of the Old Testament is a ruthless, egomaniacal, psychopathic, capricious lunatic who only requires your total and complete adulation, or he will do something nasty to you, your family, your dog, and your entire civilisation if he is really pissed off.
I should point out that I was a good boy and went to Sunday school, went to church each week (although when I was small, I do recall it was to play quietly with the Matchbox SuperKing Ford wagon that our neighbor used to bring in the pocket of his suit...that little shelf behind the pew really came in handy.) I was even a member of the Presbeterian Order Of Knights,
My "conversion" came at a time I can recall even to this day. I had always been a science nut, absorbing every book and article I could find. My highest marks were in science and physics at school, and I loved astronomy as well. My parents, to thier eternal credit, never pushed any kind of religious extremism on me or tried to dissuade me from my enthusiam for science and evolution. I seem to have grown up with a pretty firm moral base even though I was never a bible-thumping christian soldier.
In 1982, I was 17 years old and a member of a Presbeterian youth group...at one of these meetings, my outlook on religion was to change. Truth be told, me and most of the other guys there were in it for the pretty girls, friendship, outings, and to show off our hot cars.
There used to be a prayer each week, and sometimes bible lessons which were mostly harmless. One evening, as we were sitting around talking about some bible story, one of the girls mentioned that they had visited a national park where they were shown aboriginal paintings. They were told that they were around 25,000 years old. I merely nodded, but then came the words which changed my outlook. This pretty, clear headed, and otherwise intelligent girl then said "But of course we just giggle and knew that couldn't be right". I was puzzled, and asked why. She looked me right in the eye and said "Well, we all know the Earth is only 6000 years old, so those painting can't be that old."
In that instant, my brain gave a little jolt...I was honestly stunned and lost for words...I stammered out a reply, saying "Umm...yes it is...they carbon date stuff found there and work out the age." I still didn;t really grasp what she was saying...her sister chimed in to agree, and several others around the circle all nodded blindly in agreement.
Then one of the others said, "Carbon dating doesn't work...do you know they killed a seal once near a science place in Canada and carbon dated it to see how old it was, and it said it was over 300 years old?".
Now, at that time, I didn't know enough about the little details of carbon dating to know that an error of 300 years is nothing...when you are dating stuff hundreds of thousands of years old, 300 years is nothing. Then again, I might have been aware, but I was too stunned to use it as a comeback.
That was the turning point...I knew then that here was a group of people who I was firm friends with, who were educated, intelligent people, a couple who had been my girlfriends, yet I knew nothing about them.
They were based in a world view that meant that they believed the world was younger than some of the Bristlecone Pine trees, younger than the domestication of the dog, and only a little older than the pyramids.
Now I know to look at the truth and beauty of the world around me, to look into the stars through my telescope and know that some of those stars I look at have light which left while mankind was living in caves, and that all the animals and plants we see are related all the way back to a common ancestor, down a long chain of evolution and a series of trial and error, with the fittest surviving.
Use your brains, people, and read a damn book...start with The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins...
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