Category: Uncategorized

Interesting video on atheists found at Dean Cook’s site:

The first page of A Short History of the World by H.G. Wells, published in 1922:

Over a large part of the civilized world it was believed and taught that the world had been created suddenly in 4004 B.C., though authorities differed as to whether this had occurred in the spring or autumn of that year. This fantastically precise misconception was based upon a too literal interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, and upon rather arbitrary theological assumptions connected therewith. Such ideas have long since been abandoned by religious teachers, and it is universally recognized that the universe in which we live has to all appearances existed for an enormous period of time and possibly for endless time. Of course there may be deception in these appearances, as a room may be made to seem endless by putting mirrors facing each other at either end. But that the universe in which we live has existed only for six or seven thousand years may be regarded as an altogether exploded idea.

In 1922, such a preface to the age of the universe was probably necessary. What I wonder is how many American history books, especially history textbooks would make the radical claim that a “literal interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, and … rather arbitrary theological assumptions connected therewith [have] long since been abandoned by religious teachers”? Is world history even part of the required curriculum today? I took a single (very badly-abbreviated) course in high school, and not a single world history course during college in the process of getting a political science degree. (!!!) Is world history too politicized to be even be taught in public primary and secondary school anymore?
For an updated no-nonsense course on world history, I recommend J.M. Robert’s The New History of the World. I’ve also heard good things about A First History for Adults.

I took several 360 degree panoramas during my vacation in Aspen last week, and after having some trouble stitching them, found this tutorial for stitching them. (Here is my preliminary test with Photoshop.) I found a cool program that is supposed to automate the process, so I’ll post more of my experiments later.

High Dynamic Range and panorama, and 360 degree photos are just some of the many new techniques made possible by digital imaging technologies. I think the most important feature is the ability to endlessly experiment with photographic technique without paying each shot. My photo albums have grown exponentially in parallel with the growth in processing power and memory capabilities. During my week-long trip to Colorado, I took 295 photos. That equals 13 rolls of film, from which I plan to get six or so print-worthy shots. That kind of experimentation was only possible to professional photographers a few years ago.

These sample pages from the book “Why Mommy is a Democrat” give the term “Mommy state” a new meaning. If only leftists were that honest about their socialist/totalitarian ideology with other adults, perhaps people might be more wary before voting for them.

Hoping to avoid shortages of their flagship product, Coca Cola has begun asking consumers to limit their purchases of Coke. “We realize that we have an excellent product and it’s been really hot lately, but please, if you could just cut back a little, it would help a lot,” said company spokeswoman Greta Hansel. “We’re going to have to stop shipping to stores in certain areas pretty soon if people don’t reduce their Coke consumption.”

From a TIME article:

Time reports that not all Iranianians are taking state propaganda seriously. With these messages, it’s not hard to see why:

Iranian state channel … urged Iranians to boycott what it called “Zionist products,” including those made by Pepsi, Nestlé and Calvin Klein, and warned that profits from such products “are converted into bullets piercing the chests of Lebanese and Palestinian children.” As evidence, the voice-over intoned, “Pepsi stands for ‘pay each penny to save Israel.'”

Mohammad Reza Afshari, 23, a mechanic who works two jobs yet still cannot afford to move out or attend college. The shop where he works abuts a vast mural depicting a female suicide bomber with a baby in her arms, accompanied by the words I LOVE MOTHERHOOD, BUT I LOVE MARTYRDOM MORE

What do you do when Islamic fundamentalists murder 200 people? Why, you censor anyone who criticizes Islam, of course! At least, that was India’s response, when it forced Indian ISP’s to censor the following 17 websites. None of them advocate terrorism – they just dare to blaspheme against Islam.

The Band of the Banned

• The Jawa Report
• Exposing the Leftz (aka, OpiniPundit)
• The Pirate’s Cove
• Merri Musings
• Macker
• Princess Kimberly (now defunct)
• Editors in Pajamas
• Commonfolk Using Commonsense (their old website banned)
• My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
• Hindu Human Rights (down – by govt?)
• rahulyadav.com (404)
• dalitstan.com (404)

Please republish the list on your own blog to show your stand against censorship!

My comments on the ObjectivismOnline forum thread:

Some argue that Israel’s “disengagement” is to be blamed for the recent round of attacks. This is true in a sense, but not in the way most critics claim.

The Palestinian terrorist groups and their backers depend on continued violence for their political power and the foreign and domestic loot (“aid”) that comes with it. They have used the “Zionist entity’s occupation” as the primary excuse for their violence. Since they demand the entire territory of Israel, “disengagement” will not satisfy their demands. (Nothing will, since a continued conflict is the only justification for their existence.) However it does create a line in the sand. This line is a political statement as much as it is a physical barrier, intended to finally delineate Israeli claimed land from Arab land. The audience of this statement is primarily the Israeli public itself, as well as the EU market on which Israel’s economy depends. The Palestinians are a distant second – but faced with a de-facto border and Israeli and European condemnation, their opposition (which is ultimately funded by the West) will collapse.

Of course European support is far from guaranteed, but Israel has no other options. The Palestinians refuse to be integrated and they cannot be expelled – Arab nations don’t want them either. Sooner or later they will have to be recognized as a foreign power, and continued aggresion treated as an act of war. The trick is to marginalize them first in order to limit Islamic and Western support.

In response to a criticism of a defense of Senator Steven’s essentially correct “Internet tubes” speech.

Rockwell’s and Steven’s basic point is that internet bandwidth is a scarce resource, and the only way to efficiently use it is to allow entrepreneurs to decide how resources should be allocated, and how traffic should be prioritized. While the internet was not initially a private entity, the companies that now run it have found many ways to do so in the past, and are currently experimenting with new methods that have been made possible by new technology, and that will make new technologies possible.
Until recently, it was not technologically possible to prioritize certain types of internet traffic over others, making the internet unreliable for mission-critical applications, which required expensive dedicated connection that were only feasible for large corporations. However, the exponential growth in computational power has recently made it possible to examine the contents of individual data packets and prioritize them accordingly. What the net neutrality debate is essentially about is whether ISP’s should be allowed to prioritize those packets by the sender of the packet in addition to the type of packet it is.
I think that there are many possibilities that are made possible by such party-based “packet discrimination” – such as remote surgery, which is currently too unreliable without a very expensive dedicated line. This can’t be done by class-based packet prioritizing alone, since it can’t distinguish between a YouTube homemade video download, and a surgical telecast. Email another area packet discrimination can help –charging a small “toll” for email traffic has been frequently mentioned as the best way to make spam unprofitable.
These possibilities may or may not pan out – but what right does a politician have to stop me from investing in them?

Update – I respond to Ben:

“As to remote surgery…Would a two-tier Internet make that possible? I don’t think so.”

I disagree. But the point is not which of us is right, but that this disagreement should be resolved by entrepreneurs and consumers, not politicians who half-blindly regulate business models out of existence.

The irony of Senator Steven’s argument is that his ignorance makes his point: the architecture of the Internet must be left up to the market, because politicians are far too ignorant to make such decisions.

The proudly American Superman whose famous slogan inspired this blog is dead. Meet the new, multicultural “international” Superman:

But in the latest film incarnation [of Superman], scribes Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris sought to downplay Superman’s long-standing patriot act. With one brief line uttered by actor Frank Langella, the caped superhero’s mission transformed from “truth, justice and the American way” to “truth, justice and all that stuff.”

“The world has changed. The world is a different place,” Pennsylvania native Harris says. “The truth is he’s an alien. He was sent from another planet. He has landed on the planet Earth, and he is here for everybody. He’s an international superhero.”
Dougherty and Harris never even considered including “the American way” in their screenplay…they penned their first draft together and intentionally omitted what they considered to be a loaded and antiquated expression…

…the long-standing member of the Justice League of America seems to have traded in his allegiance to the flag for an international passport. “He’s here for humanity,” Dougherty says.