TechgnosisWeb Prime

Sorry, as always, about the delay in between posts. And this one will be short, too. I just acquired a 16GB iPod Touch, and have spent the last few days in a happy haze of technolust. The new iTouch is now officially jailbroken (only 74 easy steps!) which means I can run 3rd party apps on it, access the filesystem, do anything I want with it, really. I’ll see about posting up some pics of it to the Flickr stream later. I also installed a couple od iPhone/Touch friendly plugins to this blog, so when anyone browses it from their mobile device, they automatically get a much nicer interface than the usual one, more suited to the mobile browser. Perhaps more importantly for me, I also installed an iPhone friendly interface for the admin side too. In fact, I’m writing this post on it now! More news (cause I know you all care so very much) as it develops.

Wow. It’s been damn near forever since I posted.. I blame Facebook. Most of my friends are on it, and so my blog falls into disrepair.. but I just finished writing a rant in response to a dear friend, and I thought it was worthy of being included here. So, here goes: My friend emails me with the following:

I’ve been keeping up with your blog, and wondered if you’d be interested in commenting on these videos concerning alternative energy sources. Apparently, we do have free energy technology, but the World Bank… wealthy oil shieks, and the government don’t want to share it with the people of the world. They are using it for deep space exploration, star wars, and military warfare such as tanks. Check it out. =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6yRn4IAsrU

also Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8stApCmxYEM

also Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h75_TGiwg78

Other people inventing the same thing. Unbelievable!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVhXrvCCILw

Air Car - Australia & France
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-A3XHFT5qc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq8aZVLpf-c

India Air Car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_i3aMz7q1w

My reply to her begins below, and continues after the jump:

I saw the videos and the material you sent, and, well.. you know me, I’m always the skeptical spoilsport. I hate to burst your bubble, but, don’t take this stuff at face value. Neither one of those things is the mythical ‘free energy’ that they’re billed as. Let’s start with the so-called ‘Water Car’.

WARNING: Lots and lots of ranting ahead. This is an old topic for me.

The inventor of the ‘Water Car’, Stan Meyer, was convicted of fraud in ‘96. He had been selling ‘dealerships’ to investors for the right to market his Water Engine technology for years, and while he seemed quite willing to demonstrate his device in his own home lab, he never actually *delivered* on the device to his investors, which is why he was sued. He was supposed to show his car to Michael Laughton, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Queen Mary, University of London and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, but when it came time to actually show up for the testing, he made excuses and never showed up. When his Water Fuel Cell was examined by 3 different experts in court, they all came to the same conclusion: it wasn’t what he claimed it was. It was a simple electrolysis device, no more or less efficient than any other. He was convicted of fraud and ordered to repay his investors they $25,000 dollars.
(more…)

Mingle² - Online Dating

Yeah, I know I haven’t updated this blog in a while, most of my random linking and sillyness has been concentrated on my Tumblelog and over on Facebook.. but really, why would you want me to update this filthy, terrible, nasty blog, anyway? Did you see what rating it ended up with?

… I’m so proud!

Stole this from Unscrewing the Inscrutable, but it’s like the person who wrote this is inside my very head. I can pretty much relate to each and every one of these things to one extent or another. Welcome to my life:

10 Reasons It Doesn’t Pay To Be “The Computer Guy”

I only met my brother’s ex-girlfriend’s family once — the year they invited our family over to share Thanksgiving dinner. Since we were basically a group of strangers looking to make a good first impression, the table conversation was nothing more than friendly idle chitchat.

When I asked our hostess for more mashed potatoes, she took the opportunity to ask me about myself while dishing out my second helping — “So Shaun, what do you do for a living?”

Hesitantly, I responded: “I work in computer support.”

The transition to silence was immediate. All eyes suddenly turned to me, raised eyebrows all around. If you hadn’t heard my response, judging from everyone’s reaction you might think I said something outrageous like I was a male stripper or a gynecologist — but I knew the awkward silence would soon be broken by an overwhelming outpouring of computer questions.

“Oh wow, a computer guy!” — “So you know how to remove spyware and viruses and stuff, right?” — “Our family computer is really slow, I think it as a virus.” — “Do you have a business card, or can I get your number?”

I politely and patiently answered their questions, hoping that we’d exhaust the subject in a matter of minutes and then move on to something else. As it would turn out, my hopeful prediction was very wrong — the gentleman sitting next to me scooted his seat closer to me to begin an interrogation.

This man I was meeting for the first time must’ve truly believed that I was going to help him with his problem at that very moment. It didn’t matter how uninterested I looked or sounded, he was convinced that I must know the answer he’s looking for and he was determined he would get it.

Situations like this one were common for me. I’ve had eavesdropping strangers approach me with questions about their computer while I was eating in a restaurant. I’ve had oblivious coworkers step in front of me in a buffet line to tell me about their computer problems while I was serving myself food. I’ve had neighbors who spotted me from their window rush outside to coax me into working on their home computer while I was walking to the corner market. My knack for solving people’s computer problems had become so well-known among my neighborhood that these circumstances were near impossible to avoid.

You might be thinking, “So why complain? If your help is in high demand, why not embrace your talents and charge people for your time?”

I tried to for seven years. I’ve worked in the computer industry in various ways — help desk support, web design, consulting and sales, field technician, freelance computer specialist, and whatever other fancy name you want to give “the computer guy.”

I stopped enjoying it. There were certainly times when I enjoyed myself, but most of those times were when my computer talents were still developing. Once I stopped learning new things on the job, I would become fidgety and want to move on to something else.

From my career-hopping experiences in the computer industry, I’ve become acquainted with the Top Ten Reasons it doesn’t pay to be the computer guy:

Reason #10 - Most Of Your Accomplishments Are Invisible

The computer guy never hears anyone tell him, “I just want to let you know … everything is working fine!”

The reality is that people call the computer guy when something is wrong.

As a computer guy, if you work really hard to make everything work the way that it should, and things work fine, then people believe you don’t do anything. Everything you manage to get working correctly or do perfectly will forever remain unnoticed by computer users. They’ll only ever notice that you do anything when something isn’t working correctly, and you are called upon to fix it.

Reason #9 - Every Conversation You Have Is Roughly The Same

When the computer guy dares to mention what he does for a living, the typical response is, “I have a question about my home computer…”

Or when the computer guy first hears about a widespread problem within the computer network he’s responsible for, he can barely begin to assess the problem before a dozen other people call to report the same problem.

Or when the computer guy explains a certain process on a computer to a user who is incapable of retaining the process, he will inevitably need to re-instruct the user of this same process — indefinitely.

Reason #8 - You’re An Expert Of Bleeding-Edge Technology Products, Aren’t You?

The computer guy often finds himself in situations where someone is asking him for advice on a pending investment of the technological variety.

“I heard about (some hardware or software product) that can do (something desirable) for me. I brought you these (advertisements/reviews/printouts) because I wanted your recommendation. Which would you buy?”

Although the inquiring person sincerely trusts the computer guy’s judgment over their own, in almost every instance the real objective of these meetings is to ensure their own immunity from making a risky purchase.

If it turns out to be a bad investment, and they cannot get (the hardware or software product) to do (anything desirable), then you will be their personal scapegoat — “But honey, the computer guy said I should buy it!”

Reason #7 - Your Talents Are Forcibly Undervalued

Thanks to the constantly declining price of new computers, the computer guy cannot charge labor sums without a dispute. If he asks to be paid what he is worth, he will likely be met with the “why not buy new?” argument.

That is, desktop computers are always getting smaller, faster, and cheaper. It’s possible to purchase a new desktop computer for under $400. If the computer guy spends five hours fixing a computer and wants $100/hour for his time, his customer will be outraged, exclaiming “I didn’t even spend this much to BUY the computer, why should I pay this much just to FIX it?”

Reason #6 - You’re Never Allowed A Moment’s Peace

The computer guy is so prone to interruption that he rarely finds an opportunity to work on his own problems. This is because:

Computers never sleep.
Computer problems aren’t scheduled.
Every problem takes time to diagnose.
The computer guy can only give one problem his full attention.
Each user believes their problem deserves attention now.
Consequently, the computer guy has a 24/7 obligation to keep critical computer systems running, while simultaneously juggling everyone’s problems. He’ll often need to forfeit any opportunities to tend to his own needs for the sake of others — because at any moment, of any day, he can be interrupted by someone who wants to make their problem his problem.

Reason #5 - People Ask You To Perform Miracles

The computer guy is often mistaken for someone who possesses the combined skills of an old priest and a young priest. I’ll sum this up easily by example:

“No, I really can’t recover any files from your thumb drive, even if you did find it after it passed through your dog.”

Reason #4 - Your Assumed “All-Knowing” Status Sets You Up To Let People Down

There is no common understanding that there are smaller divisions within the computer industry, and that the computer guy cannot be an expert in all areas. What makes things worse, is when the computer guy attempts to explain this to someone asking for help, the person will often believe that the computer guy is withholding the desired knowledge to avoid having to help.

This is somewhat related to the next reason:

Reason #3 - You Possess Unlimited Responsibility

The computer guy is expected to solve problems. It is difficult to determine the boundaries of that expectation.

Some of the oddest things that I’ve been asked to do include:

Use pirated software to undelete important company files.
Create an Intranet, after explaining I didn’t know how to.
Teach someone how to hide their pornography collection.

Solving problems can range from replacing batteries in a wireless keyboard to investigating why the entire building loses power at the same time every morning. Resolutions can necessitate weaving a 50-foot cable through a drop ceiling, or wriggling under a house on your belly to add an electrical outlet.

Reasons #4 and #3 boil down to this: no matter how often you want to play the role of a hero, there will always be circumstances that test the limits of your ability to be one. It’s difficult to judge when helping someone means doing something immoral, and it’s even harder to admit you are unable to solve someone’s problem — and chances are, that someone will view you as incompetent because you were unable to help them.

Reason #2 - A Life Of Alienation

People only talk to the computer guy when they need him to fix something. Also, when the computer guy approaches a user, they’ll hop up out of their chair under the presumption that he’s there to fix something — as if it would never be expected that he only wants to strike up a conversation.

The fact that the computer guy never gets a moment’s peace can also practically force him to withdraw into solitude. His co-workers don’t understand that he doesn’t want to hear about their computer problems during his lunch hour — he does that every other hour of the day. That’s why the computer guy eats lunch alone with his door closed, or goes out to eat every day — not because he’s unfriendly, but because he needs to escape the incessant interruptions.

Reason #1 - You Have No Identity

It’s an awful experience when the computer guy shows up at a neighbor’s doorstep with a plate of Christmas cookies, only to have the child who answered the door call out, “Mom, the computer guy is here!” He begs for an identity that is not directly associated with computers, but “the computer guy” label walks ahead of him — it simply cannot be avoided. I was given a name and I’d love to be addressed by it.

Having read these reasons, you may believe that I’m complaining. It’s true that I was upset with many aspects of my life as the computer guy, but I’m past the point of complaining.

I took a good hard look at my existence and realized that things were not likely to change in the line of work I had chosen. Instead of just complaining, I took action and began making positive changes in my life.

Working in the computer industry isn’t for everybody. It wasn’t for me. I’ve compiled my reasons for putting it behind me and placed them here, so that anyone who is unsatisfied with their life working in computers might recognize it’s not for them either.

Ahh… cathartic. Looking forward to my own exit from being ‘the computer guy’ in the relatively near future.

50%Mingle² - Free Online Dating

So, I recently upgraded my old 3rd generation 15 GB iPod, and got myself a sexy new 2nd Generation 8GB iPod nano. Yeah, yeah, I know, ‘upgrading’ from 15 Gb to 8Gb doesn’t make much sense, but.. the sexy got the best of me. I *could* have gotten a 30GB iPod Video for the same price, but.. I already have a much better video player than the iPod video ever was (I’m lookin’ at you, Cowon A2), and.. really, the new nano is so tiny and cute and slim, and.. turns out 8 Gb is more than enough room for the music I have and my podcasts. But anyway, on to the point of this post: my podcasts. Let me show you them. Originally, when I started listening to podcasts, I was more focused on talk shows and music shows, but as time has gone on, I’ve found that what I truly love is listening to stories. I recently got my housemate Hal to start listening to The Rookie (GO KRAKENS!!!), and I thought it might be a good idea to share links to other podiobooks and audio dramas that one can subscribe to and enjoy. There’s some really, really good stuff out there, and I’d be doing y’all a disfavor if I didn’t share.

First, if you already have an iPod, you probably already have the latest version of iTunes and can use that to subscribe. Otherwise, go snag a copy of Juice Receiver, so you can subscribe. Then, another quick step that will make your life easy is to go to Podiobooks.com and sign up, it’s free, and it’s the easiest way to get started. Then browse the list below:

Let’s start in with the classics, and where it all started:

• Earthcore: Scott Sigler’s bid for world domination starts here, with the story of a mining company and the secret they discover when they try and go for a huge motherload of platinum 3 miles below the surface. There’s a reason no one’s claimed it before: something’s down there, guarding… and waiting.
• Morevi: Morevi, a landlocked kingdom shrouded by jungles and mystery, falls under the rule of Askana Moldarin, known in her realm as “The Black Widow” following her swift and bloody ascent to the throne. In the dawn of this New Age, hidden traitors in her own regime threaten to destroy everything. Askana, independent of council, seeks help to reveal the conspiracy against her… Enter Rafe Rafton, captain of the Defiant.
• The Pocket and the Pendant: More towards the ‘Young Adult’ side of the spectrum, but if you enjoyed books like ‘His Dark Materials’, this might just tickle your fancy: WHEN TIME mysteriously stops, young Max Quick must travel across America to find the source of this ‘temporal disaster’… Along the way, he and his companions encounter ancient mysteries, quantum Books, and clues to the riddle of stopped Time. But the more Max learns, the more it seems that his own true identity is not what he once believed…

Those were the ‘Big Three’ that sorta kicked things off in the whole Podiobook arena, and they’re all pretty great, and make a great introduction to the genre. After that, more and more books started coming out, and just as exciting, several ‘radio drama’-style have come up as well, with multiple voice actors, sound effects, etc. Here’s some of the best, from both the Podiobook and ‘audio drama’ veins. Most of these are things I’m listening to right now, and I recommend them all:

Let’s start with the rest of Scott Sigler (the hardest working man in the business) has written. Every single one of his books rocks:

• Ancestor: Scientists struggle to solve the problem of xenotransplantation — using animal tissue to replace failing human organs. Funded by the biotech firm Genada, Dr. Claus Rhumkorrf seeks to recreate the ancestor of all mammals. By getting back to the root of our creation, Rhumkorrf hopes to create an animal with human internal organs. Rhumkorrf discovers the ancestor, but it is not the small, harmless creature he envisions. His genius gives birth to a fast-growing evil that nature eradicated 250 million years ago — an evil now on the loose, and very, very hungry.
• Infection: Perry Daswey is 6-foot-5, 265 pounds of angry ex-linebacker. He knows all too well that if he doesn’t control his quick temper, people get hurt. Through constant focus, he has locked his violent past away in the deep dungeons of his mind. — The infection changes everything. — Strange, microscopic parasites tap into Perry’s bloodstream like tiny little vampires. They start as bright orange blisters, but soon take the shape of triangular growths just beneath his skin. The “Triangles,” as Perry calls them, try to control their host by manipulating hormone levels and flooding his body with neurotransmitters - imbalances of which cause paranoia, schizophrenia and excessive aggression. — As Perry begins a desperate battle to cut the Triangles out of his body before it’s too late, his self-control dissolves into raging, murderous madness.
• The Rookie: Imagine a story that combines the intense football action of “Any Given Sunday” with the space opera style of “Star Wars” and the criminal underworld of “The Godfather.” What? space football doesn’t sound like your cup of tea? Give Scott 4 episodes. Just 4. I hate football too.. but this story had me screaming like a loon with every touchdown, every interception, every tackle. It’s insanely good, and it just finished. Go check it out, and GO KRAKENS, WOO!!!

Once you’re done with those three, plus Earthcore, I can guarantee you’ll be just like me: one more damn, dirty junkie jonesing for his Sigler fix. Can’t wait for the next one, Nocturnal.. and Earthcore 2 sounds like it’ll be a blast.

Here’s another author who’s work I thoroughly enjoy: Mur Lafferty. She has several podcasts going on, such as I Should Be Writing and Pseudopod (more on that one later), and she’s written a cool series of podiobooks:

• Heaven, Season One: What if Heaven wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be? Friends Kate and Daniel find that after their untimely deaths, Heaven leaves them dissatisfied and itching for something… else. So they’re off, with a passport to discover more afterlifes, heroes and gods. During their adventures, they find out that their travel isn’t a journey taken on a whim, but may be orchestrated, or even prophesied.
• Heaven, Season Two - Hell:Kate and Daniel are reunited at last, but they have to return to their duties in traveling the afterlife. There are stolen souls suffering without cause in Hell, and only they can help. Kate is back in her corporeal body, but keeping memories of her time as pure soul energy, recently touched by the divine. Daniel carries the magic of an old god
  and the sword of a death goddess, as well a grudge against the deity who tricked him into losing nearly everything. As they search for the missing souls, Kate and Daniel have to come to terms with themselves and see if their friendship - not to mention the cosmos - can handle everything they’ve been through thus far.

I’m highly looking forward to the third book, ‘Earth’, once it comes out. Next in our list of authors: J.C. Hutchens, author of the amazing 7th Son trilogy:

• 7th Son, Book One - Descent: Three weeks ago, the U.S. president was murdered by a four-year-old boy.

  Today, seven men stare at each other in a locked conference room. Kidnapped and brought to this underground facility, the strangers are sitting in silence, thunderstruck. Despite minor physical differences, they all appear to be the same man, with the same name … and the same childhood memories.

  Unwitting participants in a secret human cloning experiment, these seven “John Michael Smiths” have been gathered by their creators for one reason — to capture the mastermind behind the president’s assassination.

  Their target? The man they were cloned from; the original John Michael Smith, code-named John Alpha.

  Soon our heroes — John, Jack, Michael, Kilroy2.0 and the others — realize the president’s murder was merely a prologue to Alpha’s plans. As the mystery deepens and the implications of Alpha’s scheme are slowly revealed, the clones decide to stand against John Alpha. The outcome will unearth a conspiracy larger than they could have ever imagined.

• 7th Son Book Two - Deceit: Two days ago, seven human clones — John, Michael, Father Thomas, Dr. Mike, Jonathan, Jack and Kilroy2.0 — were torn away from their “normal” lives to stop a ruthless plot created by their progenitor, a man code-named John Alpha. Their quest was a descent into conspiracy, violence and death.

  The clones were successful in their mission, but victory was not without its price.

  As 7th Son: Book Two - Deceit begins, the Beta clones are demoralized, reeling from their loss … and about to learn that John Alpha’s plans are far from over.

  To prevent the next phase of Alpha’s plan, John, Kilroy2.0, and the others must unearth more dark secrets about the government project from which they were spawned. They will experience the horrors of betrayal, and race cross-country to track John Alpha.

  And they will finally realize the scope of Alpha’s wrath — the bloodshed the clones have witnessed is merely a prelude to the world-rending destruction to come. Unless they can stop it first.

Book Three comes out on 07/07/07, and I cannot wait. This series is truly, truly excellent. Now, for a few more random books:

• The Failed Cities Monologues: In a hardboiled dystopian future, one major American city has been divided in two. Separated by much more than a river, one side is an unfinished technological marvel populated by mega-skyscrapers where the wealthy live, work, and play. The other is a forsaken wasteland where order is strictly maintained by a rogue group of cleric soldiers known as the street preachers. But this dichotomy is about to change. Slowly, quietly, clandestine forces are working to undermine the small piece of redemption the street preachers have brought to their concrete flocks. In the face of watching their second chance crumble to dust, some will fight to stop it. Others will kill to make it happen.
• Crescent: The past never dies, it only sleeps. — In a solitary station, on the fringe of known space, the past is beginning to stir. — And when it awakens, Crescent Station will be as the belly of the beast… — There are some places far darker than deep space…
• Come, Let Me Whisper: Macabre fiction. Horror fiction. Dark fiction. Whatever you choose to call it, that is what is contained within this collection of short stories. But other than that, these tales are as varied as can be. Ghost stories… they’re in there. Lovecraftian monsters… certainly. Twist endings… got it. Psychological terror… of course. Sunny, happy endings… not so much. Oh, and one other thing these stories have in common: they are intended for a mature audience- one who is not easily offended, I might add.
• Brave Men Run: “Brave Men Run” is the story of Nate Charters. Born different, unsure of his origins, he’s an outcast at Abbeque Valley High School, a self-proclaimed “boy freak” with few friends and low self-esteem. When the Sovereign Era dramatically dawns, Nate finds himself in quest to discover the truth: is he more than he seems, a misfit in a miraculous and powerful new minority… or something else entirely?

And now, for the radio dramas: a different experience, but no less excellent for all of that:

• Shadow Falls- Season One: When a second young girl goes missing and two mysterious strangers arrive in town, there are some locals who believe the 150 year cycle of violence that has plagued the town of Shadow Falls has started anew.
• Shadow Falls - Badlands: One hundred and fifty years before the tragic events of Season One, an ex-soldier’s nightmarish visions of the future, and a town he’s never heard of, leads him on a cross-country journey to unlock the secrets hidden inside his nightmares. What this tired gunfighter believes to be a quest for his own redemption, may only serve to open the door to a darkness far beyond his control.
• Silent Universe: With a style of drama that mixes elements of “24” and the new “Battlestar Galactica,” each episode of the Silent Universe reveals layers of suspense and intrigue that leaves audiences guessing at what twists its plot will take next. Its motley cast of characters includes weapons specialists, a computer hacker, an ex-mercenary and even a casino tycoon, all forced to go to extreme lengths to prevent tragedy from striking the solar system. In a world where nuclear weapons are common to even the poorest countries and the United Nations is nothing but a quaint historical footnote, even the smallest conflict between powers can threaten to plunge mankind into Armageddon.
• Children of the Gods: We barely survived the first Tarthet assault on our planet. Afterward, it didn’t take long for us to realize that our world was too devastated to provide for us any longer. In a bid to allow the planet to recover, we left our homes behind to live among the stars. Five centuries later, science has shown us many wonderful things, and we have finally begun to accept the fact that it may be many generations more before we can return to our homeworld. Now, the Tarthet have returned to claim our birthright for their own. The odds are against us, but we will not give up this battle. We will not simply concede defeat and fade away. We will fight them with every last breath. WE WILL SURVIVE!

And, finally, last but most certainly not least, the short story podcasts, every week putting out brand new short stories:

• Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Podcast magazine, they’ve run stories of all shapes and sizes, many by Hugo and nebula award winning authors.
• Pseudopod: sister podcast to Escape Pod, and the world’s premier horror fiction podcast. If you’re a fan of horror fiction, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
• Variant Frequencies: Variant Frequencies is a monthly podcast of original fiction. Stories blending gothic horror with space adventure, dark fantasy with sci-fi, recalling the reality-bending vibes of The Twilight Zone, and offering something wholly unique that fits inbetween and outside. Our podcasts are fully produced, including talented voice actors and original music scores. Subscription is free. Entertainment and escapism are guaranteed.

So, I think that should be more than enough to get anyone started. Enjoy listening, and if you have any questions, hit me up in the comments. Best part? All of these are free, so download and enjoy, free of charge!
(more…)

Recently, there’s been something of a media backlash against the so-called ‘New Atheism’, that is, the vocal declaration of atheism by those who do not subscribe to a religion and who believe that the universe demonstrates that it is very unlikely that there is a god. In addition, ‘new atheists’, or, as they are called by some, ‘fundamentalist atheists’, have stepped up their attack on religion, no longer content with simply keeping their beliefs (or lack thereof) private, but now writing books, putting up blogs, making movies, and generally getting the message out that religion, in all its shapes and forms, is not only illogical, but downright dangerous.

The general response from many in the religious community has been to, as usual, paint themselves as the victims (even though ‘believers’ far outnumber atheists in the US, and atheists are the last minority that it’s still okay to discriminate against), and basically say: “What’s with these uppity atheists all of a sudden? Can’t they just go back to their stuffy rooms and towers and keep quiet like they used to? It’s downright rude of them to start going on about these things, and anyway, everyone knows that they’re wrong.”

Even among atheists themselves, there are those who say “Why do we need to attack religion? Isn’t it enough to simply accept your own lack of belief, and let others believe as they wish? In short, can’t we just live and let live?” It’s a tempting thought. Let’s avoid the confrontation, and just go on with our lives, and if those wacky theists want to go on believing in their big sky fairy, well, good for them. It sounds reasonable, and proper, and the theists would dearly love it if we just all took that point of view and simply want away. But here’s the problem with that: if we go away, they certainly won’t.

There’s a reason that the ‘new’ atheists are loud and proud, and they’re spreading the word, doing everything they can to let the world know that they exist, that they’re out there, and that they’re not alone: the reason is that they’ve noticed that the world we live in has been getting worse and worse, and so much of it can be traced directly back to religion and faith. We live in a world where religious extremists strap bombs to their bodies and kill themselves, taking out dozens of innocents along with them, because they believe they will be rewarded in the afterlife. We live in a world where a large majority of the population of one of the most powerful countries on Earth honestly believes that the Earth is less than 6,000 years old, that evolution is ‘just a theory’, and that scientists are in league with the devil. We live in a world where a large majority of not only the population, but the people in power, the people with their fingers on the proverbial button, believe, honestly believe, that the world will end within their lifetimes, in a terrible war and destruction. And they see this as a good thing, they can’t wait for the Armageddon to come, because they think that their god is going to pull them up into heaven when that moment comes. We live in a world, too, where people routinely trust the advice of a homeopath over a real doctor, where political leaders consult star charts, or base political decisions that will affect millions of people, on the words of a dusty and discredited book written thousands of years ago.

In this situation, I have come to believe that we cannot sit idly by and let it happen. That to simply keep quiet and let religion and ‘believers’ drag this world down into the muck, to let them destroy thousands of innocent others, to continue to spread lies and hurt the poor and gullible, is downright immoral. We, as atheists, are often accused of having no moral compass, simply because we don’t have our commandments handed down to us by and angry and jealous god. That we cannot possibly make moral decisions, as we have no basis on which to form a moral framework. And yet, any fool can see that to simply lay back and do nothing, to let the world fall prey to the poison of religiosity, is not only irresponsible, but simply wrong from a humanistic standpoint. We cannot go quietly. We owe it to ourselves, and to our fellow man, to fight, to shout, to let people know: you’re living a lie. You are being lied to, and you are following that lie to your grave. Religion is a plague upon mankind, and we can move beyond it. And if we annoy a few religious folks, and even a few less bombastic atheists, I can live with that. But let it not be said that we stood by silent while religion continued to drag the world deeper into chaos and ignorance.
(more…)

BluIrony

Originally uploaded by Katsushiro.

Okay, while browsing through the Wired gallery of HD-DVD code photoshops, this ad comes up. Conspiracy revealed? Were the BluRay folks behind it all?!

To bring you the following announcement:

09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0

That is all. Move along.

99% GeekMingle2.com - Free Online Dating

And on a related note, tomorrow’s the 4th Blogoversary for Techgnosisweb.. what are you doing to celebrate?

Been looking for this cover of ‘Word Up’ ever since I heard it the other week on CSI. Excellent stuff, and I figured I’d share.

Download ‘Willis - Word Up’ here.
(more…)

Sadistic equine necrophiliac Dinesh D’Souza just refuses to get the point, doesn’t he? This is his third little article on the whole ‘atheists are evil’ bandwagon, all capitalizing on the VT tragedy. Seriously, how much of a nasty, contemptible, snide, reptilian little scumbag can one human being be? Still, there is one good thing coming from his continuing, if laughable, attack on atheism: some truly inspired atheists are coming out and denouncing both the man and the point of view. Case in point: this Virgina Tech professor, who has written an impassioned and brilliant response to D’souza. Among the other things he says:

We atheists do not believe in gods, or angels, or demons, or souls that endure, or a meeting place after all is said and done where more can be said and done and the point of it all revealed. We don’t believe in the possibility of redemption after our lives, but the necessity of compassion in our lives. We believe in people, in their joys and pains, in their good ideas and their wit and wisdom. We believe in human rights and dignity, and we know what it is for those to be trampled on by brutes and vandals. We may believe that the universe is pitilessly indifferent but we know that friends and strangers alike most certainly are not. We despise atrocity, not because a god tells us that it is wrong, but because if not massacre then nothing could be wrong.

…

With or without a belief in a god, with or without your asinine bigotry, we will make progress, we will breathe life back into our university, I will succeed in explaining this or that point, slowly, eventually, in a ham-handed way, at risk of tears half-way through, my students will come to feel comfortable again in a classroom with no windows or escape route, and hell yes we will prevail.

You see Mr D’Souza, I am an atheist professor at Virginia Tech and a man of great faith. Not faith in your god. Faith in my people.

(more…)

The recent tragedy at Virginia Tech, where a deeply disturbed individual went on a rampage and killed at least 33 other people, was a horrible event. It was horrible in terms of human life and potential lost. It was horrible in terms of the emotional damage done to friends, families, and acquaintances of the victims. And, now, it is also horrible due to the opportunistic little ghouls that have crawled out of the woodwork trying to, first, blame the whole thing on ‘teh terrists’, and then, once it turned out that the shooter was not Islamic, to try and blame (brace for it)… evolution and atheism. I wish I was making this shit up. (This is gonna be long and quote-heavy, so I’ll plop it all behind the ‘more-wall’)
(more…)

Evo pointed out this new service called iStalkr, which basically aggregates all of one’s disparate Web 2.0 social rss feeds into one handy dandy place, so that instead of having to visit 4 or 5 different services to stalk me, one can just subscribe to my iStalkr meta-feed, and keep track of all of them at once (plus, any new services I might start using will be added to that feed, and you’ll automatically follow those too, without having to do anything! I added this blog, my Tumblr feed, my Twitter feed, and my Flickr feed (update: just added my blogHUD, Digg and del.icio.us feeds too.. am I forgetting any?), and it’s already getting rave reviews. As my good friend Monster just told me over IM:

How creepy is that?

Answer: very, very creepy. Go check my meta-feed out and add it to your Netvibes/Firefox/RSS reader of choice.
(more…)

I think it’s about that time again, to change the look of this site. Over the past few years that I’ve run Techgnosisweb, it’s had a couple different looks, from dark and personal to more light and airy. But as time goes on, things change, my other domains come due for renewal, and I think it’s time to mix things up a bit more around here. Not only that, but I’ve started doing a lot more micro-blogging, as it were, with posts on Twitter, the Katsustumbling blog, my Flickr feed, etc. So, I believe I’m going to try and change the look of this place once more, but not just the look, but the actual functionality a bit. I think I’ll make this site into the main hub of my onine activities, but have more obvious links and displays to the other services where I post. Thus, I will keep posting my random moment-to-moment thoughts on Twitter, links and cool things I want to point at on Katsustumbling, pics through Flickr, and more thought-out posts here, but I will set up display elements, windows, badges, whatever, so that they can all be seen from here, rather than having to visit 3 or 4 different sites. Ought to be interesting to see what I can come up with. Wish me luck!

Spending a Sunday night in Second Life, listening to Matthew Ebel at the Dirty U-Turn Cafe… not too shabby! Hes watching us dance to his stuff online as he plays live, and this is pretty damn sweet.
posted by Katsushiro Foo on Dirty using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

That statement, or many like it, are usually quick to be trotted out by people who are trying to stay on the fence about silly irrational beliefs. “Well, maybe it’s true, or maybe it’s not true, but believing in this stuff isn’t hurting anyone, so what’s the big deal?” The problem is, of course, that believing in these things, especially when it comes to health issues, can hurt someone, especially when folks forgo real treatments in favor of bullshit stuff like homeotherapy or ‘applied kinesiology’. And, as demonstrated by this case, sometimes people can even lose their jobs simply for refusing to believe in this idiocy:

Case in point: thanks to some woo, my girlfriend was fired from her job last week.

She’s a preveterinary student who had been working at a local vet clinic for the last year and a half or so. Things went pretty well at first. Then, a few months in, during a routine shift, she walked into an examination room and through the looking glass. One of the doctors, a woman educated for years in veterinary medicine and who must have a strong background in the sciences, was hunched over a poor sick dog pressing a vial of blood to his chest.

This might seem like some sort of morbid ritual to summon Hod-Canus-Sq’ctamoreth, the Ancient Tentacled God-Creature of Insanity and Domestic Dogs, but it was in fact a variant on the bullshit quackery known as “applied kinesiology.” My girlfriend was told to enter the room and take the doctor’s place in pressing the vial of dog’s blood against the ailing canine’s chest. She was then told to hold out her arm while the doctor pushed down on it.

A little further on:

The polite and reasonable way in which my girlfriend attempted to question the usefulness of these treatments did not in any way indict the doctor’s integrity or intelligence as I have here today. She merely voiced politely her skepticism about the methods. Nevertheless, things changed after that day. Her bosses, the vets, began treating her differently. They regarded her askance and turned away their suspicious eyes when she met their gaze. People became colder, more “professional” in person, while rumors started floating around behind her back. Work became a generally hostile environment for her in which each day brought new problems, new worries, new passive aggression. She would get berated for not knowing how to do something, and when she pointed out that she had never been trained to do that something though she had asked multiple times her protests fell on deaf ears (and they never did train her to do many things). Multiple times she spoke of quitting but stayed to gather more experience for her vet school application.

Then she was unceremoniously dumped. Turns out that, under the orders of the holistic woo bitch of a head doctor, her co-workers had been essentially spying on her, her every transgression had been catalogued, until they had a long list on increasingly minor and inane “issues,” including the doozy “asked the doctor a dosage question,” because it is apparently bad to make sure you’re doing your job properly. One honest mistake later and she was out on her ass.

Go and read the full article for the whole sad story, but the lesson here is pretty simple: Believe or else. Despite the complete lack of evidence behind any of these so-called ‘alternative’ treatments, despite the fact that experiment after experiment shows time after time that these things simply do not work (other than a basic placebo effect, and sometimes not even that), despite all rational evidence and thought pointing to these things being nothing more than made-up idiocy: you’re supposed to put your rational mind aside, ignore that little voice in your head that is screaming at you that maybe it’s not a good idea to give someone a sugar pill when there’s real medicine that can help them, and simply go along with this lunacy because ‘hey, it’s not hurting anyone!’

On another quick note, and while I’m on a rant… Ran across this particularly funny site while reading through the Skeptico entry on ‘The Secret’.. This particular brand of idiocy was penned, apparently, by someone deeply upset over the treatment of Oprah’s latest pet project and the flavor of the week when it comes to New (Dark) Age woo-woo, The Secret. Let me save you a few bucks and tell you for free what the writers of that book want you to shell out money for: the so-called secret is nothing but a re-hashing of that old woo-woo canard, the law of attraction, e.g. good thoughts attract good things, bad thoughts attract bad things. Yeah, I think I’ll just quote the Skeptic Dictionary entry on that particular bit of nonsense:

The law of attraction is a New (Dark) Age belief that one’s mental disposition attracts similar external circumstances and events. In other words, your mental intentions and attitudes draw people and things of like intention and attitude to yourself. On one level this is trivially true. We generally hang out with people who think like us and share our values and we avoid people who disagree with us on important matters and don’t share our values. But a moment’s reflection should reveal that this “law” is false; it’s not even truthy.

Sellers don’t attract sellers; they attract buyers, unless they’re running an MLM scheme. Lazy dreamers don’t attract lazy dreamers. They attract con artists with big smiles and lots of promises. Grieving vulnerable people don’t attract vulnerable people; they attract vultures and vampires who take advantage of their grief. If you say that grief and greed are both negative so this example supports the law of attraction, then this law is impossible to test. It’s too slippery to have any meaningful content if obvious contradictions to it are said to support it. When kindness begets not more kindness but resentment, a New (Dark) Age defender of this “law” can always claim that the kindness wasn’t genuine.

Anyway, the sad little site I mentioned before goes on and on making the typical mistakes of confusing science with faith, and therefore accusing skeptics of ‘following scientific dogma’ and all those other inane accusations that woo-peddlers love to trot out in their defense. One particular statement (and one of my all-time pet peeves) involves the unfortunate tendency of New (Dark) Age followers of trying to recruit quantum theory over to their side:

What amused me the most was how dead serious they were about how totally right their thinking process was. Hashed over and over was the pseudo-scientific blather that most skeptic groups dredge up to support their argument. I call them pseudo-scientific because most of them are simply parroting the “real scientists” of the world. In reality like most of us they do not have a clue how “quantum mechanics” REALLY works but sure would like you to believe they do.

Ah, trying to use the language of skepticism to defend your woo-woo beliefs, are we? Excellent. Let’s have at you, then: so the skeptics are resorting to ‘pseudo-science’? Really? And you would have us believe that you are an authority on ‘actual’ science, then? I’m assuming that you must have dozens of peer-reviewed experiments and papers published showing scientific proof for the ‘law of attraction’, then. I’d love to see them. But that’s not even my main complaint with you, it’s the last sentence in that little paragraph.

No, the average lay person may, indeed, have very little clue of how quantum mechanics really works, but, unlike you, a skeptic is willing to actually find out, read the actual scientific papers and find out the truth of the matter. New Age-y folks just take the sound bite version of quantum physics, such as the whole ‘observation affects the result of experimentation’ bit, and try and use it to wrap up the same idiocy they’ve been peddling for thousands of years, just with a shiny veneer of ’scientific validation’. You know, for a group that disdains science so much, they certainly seem real hungry for scientific validation. If an experiment ever managed to show that, say, telepathy was real, they would jump all over it and proclaim it to the heavens as ultimate proof of the existence of telepathy… but when experiment after experiment, over dozens of years, shows over and over again that there is no such thing as telepathy, then clearly science is flawed and false, and of no use to ‘truly open-minded people who are not shackled by the limitations of rationality’. But I digress; the average skeptic may not have a very deep understanding of quantum mechanics, it’s true. But their opinions on quantum mechanics are at least informed by the actual scientists who do work day-in and day-out with this stuff, and I think it’s quite telling that of all the people trotting out quantum mechanics as an ‘explanation’ for all manners of woo-woo beliefs, not a single one of them is one of those scientists. Neither the wannabe-psychic nor the average skeptic may have a deep understanding of quantum physics, but it’s no coincidence that the people who do have a deep understanding of quantum phenomena fall firmly in the camp of science and skepticism.

And let’s not even get into the basic intellectual dishonesty of claiming that neither you or the skeptics really understand quantum mechanics, and then turning right around and trying to use it to justify your own idiotic beliefs…
(more…)

So, while playing with the Twitterbox HUD attachment in Second Life, I started getting a bit curious to see if there was any way to actually post proper blog posts from inside the SL client. This led me to find blogHUD, which is an interesting little scri
posted by Katsushiro Foo on Asimov Park using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Edit: Huh… it seems to have cut off my post pretty early on… bug, or feature? Anyway, here’s the rest of what I was originally going to say:

…led me to find blogHUD, which is an interesting little script/attachment that allows you to post blog entries and even pictures and snapshots from inside SL itself. I shelled out the L$900 for the Pro version so I could use it to cross-post not just on the blogHUD site itself, but here on the main blog, and so far, it seems to be working fine. You know, between the Twitterbox allowing me to post quick Tweets from anywhere in there, and now the blogHUD thingy letting me make proper blog posts (and post pictures up to Flickr), I might end up spending a bit more time in SL after all…

Just a quick note to let all of my thousands and thousands of loyal readers and fans know that I just did a quick and dirty upgrade of the Wordpress backend software the site runs on, as well as the SpamKarma2 plugin that keeps us spam-free. So far, everything seems to be running just fine and dandy, but if anyone notices any odd bugs, please let me know so I can squash ‘em?

I just ran across something called a ‘tumblelog‘.. It’s basically a blog, but designed for short-form little links, pictures, quotes, things like that. Stuff that I wouldn’t spend the effort on writing a full-fledged blog post on, but that I still think is cool or interesting enough to share. So, I just set up the Katsustumbling tumblelog, and am making a few posts on it as I go, just to see what it’s like. So, this brings the total ways for me to document random events in my life to three at the least: this blog for bigger, more in-depth stuff (as if I ever got really in-depth here anyway), Twitter for all those random ‘Allright, I’m having lunch now’ announcements, and now the Katsustumbling thingy for random stuff I, well, stumble across on the web. We’ll see if anyone likes it.
(more…)