(Yeah, I have no idea what that title means either. Sometimes I just throw krahp out there.) BoingBoing has a story today on how starting Jan 1, the TSA will be severely limiting how many and how large of batteries for electronic devices you can carry on a plane. ♦ TSA’s new forbidden item: >2 [...]
READ MORE »Monthly archives for December, 2007
Do androids dream of rock stardom?
I’m so lucky to have been born in a wealthy capitalist western society. If I have to be born in a pre-worldwide socialist era, this is where I want to be. (Oh, one day thanks to technology, nano-tech, etc., we’ll be able to advance the world beyond criminal and soul stupefying capitalism and world-wide poverty [...]
READ MORE »“Positive Atheism at its Best”
The Friendly Atheist has a post today that caught my eye and attention. It’s about a newspaper article featuring a civil engineer, 55, who’s worked in Iraq and provided Katrina relief, and is an atheist. He talks about his personal values and belief in family and helping fellow humankind: ♦ Positive Atheism at its Best [...]
READ MORE »Review: Sweeney Todd
Saw Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd last night, featuring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter: ♦ IMDB: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street ♦ Rotten Tomatoes: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street I haven’t reviewed many movies lately, because I haven’t seen many movies lately. Well, some lame TV movies, the really [...]
READ MORE »Reasons for the season.
December 25th is a very special day. It’s the celebration of a human-deity that was born of a virgin, performed miracles, provided salvation, and was resurrected after being sacrificed. No, it’s not who you think. Most Biblical scholars and religion historians believe the story of the Sumerian sun-god Mithra (adopted and worshiped by Romans, centuries [...]
READ MORE »Do-nothing Congress, or Road-blocked Congress?
We all know from civics classes that a bill passes the Senate with a simple majority vote. That someone can filibuster to delay the passage which takes a vote of 60 to end. Reminder: A couple of years ago when the Democrats were the Senate minority, they threatened filibusters now and then of course. Often [...]
READ MORE »Terrorist, or Tourist? Dang spell-check….
Continuing the campaign of the War on Reason and Rationality, and the War On Promoting Fear Itself, the CHicago police department want citizens to be watch-dogs on people with cameras or notepads: ♦ Chicago police ask you to report people using maps or taking notes in public
READ MORE »The changing view of the “men in blue”.
I’ve said and I still believe, that police do a job I’m glad someone does and I could never do. (Sounds like a scene from “A Few Good Men”. I can handle the truth, let me tell you.) You can watch those cop/video shows on TV, browse YouTube, and see so many disturbing incidents of [...]
READ MORE »Truly awesome and glorious!
OK, with my last post on religion getting that out of my system, probably for another few months at least (it’s a rather fantastic post, that one by John Loftus), it’s time to move on to good and positive things! And one of those things, for me, is the awesome wonder of the universe!!! “For [...]
READ MORE »An extremely well-reasoned and educated case against Christianity.
…not written by me. John W. Loftus, according to his brief bio, has: “the equivalent of a Ph.D. in the Philosophy or Religion/Apologetics (three master’s degrees and Ph.D. studies). I majored under William Lane Craig and earned a Th.M. degree at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 1985.” Trinity is one of the most prestigious religious [...]
READ MORE »A Christian, a Jew, and a Muslim walk onto a train…
No, seriously: ♦ Muslim helps Jews attacked on New York subway The long and short of it: Some loving and merciful Christians showed peace and meekness by insulting and then beating up a Jew to responded to their “Merry Christmas” with a “Happy Hanuka.” But the best part which fills me with holiday spirit: A [...]
READ MORE »Human value, the definition of “happiness,” over-population, and dominionism vs. stewardship.
Goodness, what a topic! Yesterday’s Thom Hartmann program had a fantastic segment on overpopulation–is it an ecological and human-race-survival issue or is it a theological non-issue. ♦ Yesterday’s Thom Hartmann program (You’ll might want to right-click, save-as instead of stream it; it’s 19MB.) Well, that’s later in the show. For the first 10 minutes he [...]
READ MORE »Our Web; our privacy.
Here’s a cute, little silly, little longer than it needs to be but still short, video illustrating the issue of Net Neutrality and the push by corporations to gain literal control of the Internet–a virtual realm designed to be a haven for true democracy, education, information, and limitless open communication. The film is brought to [...]
READ MORE »You’ve made him famous. Thanks.
I can’t stand it. The news are all on about how the Ohio mall shooter wrote in his suicide note how he was going to be famous–and guess what? The new outlets have made him famous! His name, his face, his life story, he’s gotten his 16 minutes of fame, and that’s 17 more minutes [...]
READ MORE »Radiation, and political courage.
Yesterday’s Thom Hartman Program on Air America had a couple of interesting topics: ♦ Thom Hartman: 12-5-2007 (You may want to right-click & save-as to save it as a file instead of stream it. It’s about 19MB in size.) (I digress for a second: Today’s show he’s spending some time on the topic of telemarketers. [...]
READ MORE »“Dark energy is repulsive!”
OK, I took that quote from a commenter on one of today’s Bad Astronomy posts: ♦ Dark energy video from Hubble Phil Plait gives us a link to a Hubble Flash animation that does an amazing job explaining the discovery of dark energy and its role in the acceleration of the universe. This really is [...]
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