Google is Taking Over the World

Google's new feature Sidewiki allows you to comment on every web page you come across. Thus proving that Google bought way more servers than it's ever going to use.

The feature is slated as a way to explain what a web page is about. I can't imagine that the comments are going to stay productive or in any way civilized. I can just imagine the shit storm that's going to happen on Answers in Genesis or any other controversial web page.

Click for Sidewiki's homepage

Good luck with the server overload Google.

It's Jesus!

He's appeared in pancakes and on doors. And he won't stop until we realize that he appears on arbitrary objects to make us feel better.

Jesus, or something.

It looks like the virgin Mary to me, or an alien (see the antenna cleverly disguised as steam holes). Mary Jo (the woman who discovered Jesus) says that "life is going to be good" and that this is proof that "he's listening". Maybe you're just bad at ironing clothes, and can't do it without burning them. But, of course, that's all God's plan too.

(via KansasCity.com)

Texas Bans Marriage

I guess I'm being something of a gay rights activist today, but this one is too funny to pass up. In an attempt to prevent gay people from getting married, Texas lawmakers may have inadvertently banned all marriage in the state. I guess that's Texas for you.

The clause in question says that "marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman." Ok, on point so far, moving on. "This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage." Oops, the state can't recognize anything identical to marriage? Hmm, what is identical to marriage. Oh, that's right, marriage.

The apparent intention of this badly worded clause was to prevent civil unions and domestic partnerships for same sex partners. It does that, but they went a little too broad. So Texans, until this constitutional amendment can be repealed or changed, no marriages for anyone. Thank Greg Abbott for his mistake.

(via Miami Herald)

Homophobes Boycott Scholastic

I think gay bigotry has reached an all time high. These crazies are boycotting an entire publisher (Scholastic Books) over one book, that doesn't have anything to do with gay people. They are boycotting because one of the four main characters happens to have lesbian parents. The book, "Love Ya Bunches" is targeted toward 9-12 year olds. Which of course makes it all the worse, we wouldn't want our children to not be bigots.

This is the product description from Amazon:

What do Katie-Rose, Yasaman, Milla, and Violet all have in common? Other than being named after flowers, practically nothing. Katie-Rose is a film director in training. Yasaman is a computer whiz. Milla is third in command of the A list. And Violet is the new girl in school. They’re fab girls, all of them, but they sure aren’t friends. And if evil queen bee Medusa— ’scuse me, Modessa—has her way, they never will be. But this is the beginning of a new school year, when anything can happen and social worlds can collide . . .

Told in Lauren Myracle’s inventive narrative style—here a fresh mix of instant messages, blog posts, screenplay, and straight narrative—Luv Ya Bunches, the first in a four-book series, is a funny, honest depiction of the shifting alliances and rivalries that shape school days, and of the lasting friendships that blossom from the skirmishes.

Where is the pro-gay message? How homophobic do you have to be to scour through all of the books your children read, paranoid about gay characters. Of course, these people see the secret gay agenda behind Scholastic Books:

Clearly, homosexual activists recognize the potential Scholastic Books has to transform the views of impressionable children.

Clearly. I agree, children are impressionable to being "nice" and recognizing everyone as "equal". We have to work together while they're young to turn them into little hate filled bigots, just like their parents.

The rest of the message lists the way you can contact Scholastic Books and harass them. I sincerely hope Scholastic doesn't back down on this one.

End of the World?

The large hadron collider (LHC) is expected to be online by this Christmas. Some crazy people think that this device, that accelerates tiny particles to nearly the speed of light, could cause a black hole to form, destroying the world. Fortunately, no scientists that anyone takes seriously are saying this.

The LHC was expected to come online around this time last year, but has been fraught with problems. First, it was inadvertently flooded with helium. Then magnets fused together, causing failure. Somehow a bird dropped bread crumbs into the machine, causing bad readings.

These problems have inspired Dr. Nielsen, who was interviewed by the New York Times, to say that the LHC is destined to fail. He posits that the particles the LHC will create (Higgs-Boson particles) will be so abhorrent to nature, that they will send ripples back in time. Thus preventing the device from working. Right, if only there were evidence for him saying that rather than "Oh, bad things keep happening to the LHC, that's a strange coincidence".

You may wonder how we would know if the world was ending (due to the LHC). Well luckily, someone has set up a website with up to the minute information on whether the LHC has destroyed the world. Click here for an update.

(via BrandX)

Christians Pro "Hate Crimes"

A couple of weeks ago, President Obama passed the new hate crimes law "Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act". Christians are screaming foul. They say this violates their first amendment rights. Your first amendment right to hate people? I think I missed that one.

As protest, Christians held a rally, quoting bible verses such as "And they that commit such things are worthy of death." I wonder if Jesus would be out there protesting loving people. Jesus must have said something about homosexuality being wrong. Oh wait, he didn't. Go home Christians.

(via WorldNetDaily)

Oh Indiana, Why am I not Surprised?

Indianapolis schools ban "Alternative spirituality/belief" websites. This includes Wicca, Witchcraft, Satanism, and of course Atheism. Wait, what? Since when is Atheism "Alternative spirituality" or even an alternative belief for that matter. There are far more people that say they don't believe in God (~9%) then there are that identify as Jews (~2%).

The official policy goes on to say that alternative spirituality/belief "Includes sites that endorse or offer methods, means of instruction, or other resources to effect real events through the use of spells, incantations, curses, and magic powers". Not only do they have no idea how badly they miscategorized "Atheism", they also seem to believe that real events in fact can be influenced by "magic".

Of course, they don't ban the bible and all of it's sexual acts and murder, or other "main stream" religions. Those are acceptable crazy beliefs. My opinion of Indiana (especially the Indianapolis public school system, which has enough problems as it is) is going down by the day.

Don't Respect My Religion (or Lackthereof)

The Purdue newspaper published an article today titled "If religions are fated to clash, let's clash with respect". I hold the position that you only respect things that deserve respect. The religions she lists that we should respect are "Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Wicca, Taoism, Pastafarianism". How about those with no religion? We don't have to respect those people? Or did she sneak "Pastafarianism" in there to appease the Atheists?

The message I get from just the first paragraph is that it's better to worship something ridiculous (i.e. Flying Spaghetti Monsters, Jesus, etc.) than not to worship anything at all. Great, so I can worship a potted plant and get more respect from Kelly than if I live my life based on evidence.

She goes on to tell a story about how a Christian was appalled at how children in other countries are taken to worship Buddha. This same lady apparently doesn't see the parallels between those children worshiping Buddha and her children worshiping Jesus. At least those children don't ceremonially eat Buddha every week.

The article goes down hill from there. "I’m a Christian, but I do not look at other religions as wrong in any way." If she doesn't look at other religions as wrong in "any way" then why is she a Christian? You have to look at other people's belief as wrong in some way, sorry, that's how it works. Not to mention that your religion (Christianity) specifically mentions that everyone else is wrong in every way, and they are all going to hell. Kelly can look over small technicalities like this.

She goes on to scold the Christian that was bad mouthing the Buddhists. Why is religion automatically off limits for any sort of critical analysis?

"As long as the religion is not harming anyone, what difference does it make? I’m firmly against any religion that believes in, say, murdering for fun, but that was clearly not the case." She did say she was a Christian right? I hate to break the news to you, but the Christian God seems to kill, and tell other people to kill, quite a lot. Not to mention the bigotry and hate spread throughout the bible.

"When settlers came to the United States to try to acquire land, we all know they were not very nice to the Native Americans. In addition to their kind gifts of small pox blankets, the settlers forced many Native Americans to convert to some form of Christianity. Native American religions have been lost because of this. These religions were usually very spiritual and nature-oriented, and some featured female deities, which is rare in present culture." Some featured female deities?! Are we deciding what to believe based on our feminist leanings now? Right, that sounds like a fun God, so I'll believe that one. Who needs evidence when you have personal preference.

This version of "respect" seems to mean ignore your differences and move on with your life (there's something to be said for that). I'm going to give this one a try, I'm going to ignore Kelly's strange ideas and move on with my life.

Class Registration

This is going to be a rant. But it's my blog and I'll rant if I want to. I had a wonderful time, as I do every semester, registering for next semester's classes.

Here at Purdue we get certain time slots for signing up for classes, based on year in school and (maybe?) academic achievement. Which means if you're lucky enough to get an early time slot, then you might get the classes you want for the next semester. As if this isn't a problem enough, at the beginning of every time slot, everyone else that shares your time is furiously clicking the refresh button on their browser to try to log in and get their classes before you. Is it not possible to enter your schedule beforehand and then have some computer program enter you into classes based on class standing/grades? Apparently not, Purdue would rather have us have an arbitrary contest over the internet. Maybe some Purdue administrator is getting a laugh out of it.

And So It Begins

Yet another blog cluttering up the internet. I may not have too much time for this for now, as I spend a lot of time on my current project Reading and Critically Reviewing the Bible in 365 Days. But if I find a particularly interesting tidbit I'll probably post it on here. Of course, when I'm done with the bible, this blog will get all of my attention.