Posted by Unknown
Jumat, 11 November 2005
Sometime I wish I was a conservative Christian so that I could feel the surge of power through my body when I read a story like this one. Honestly, who else could say things like this and get away with it?? Not to many people in the public eye, so whats the lesson? Establish yourself early as a crazy nutjob and you can basically say what you want, when you want. Pat Robertson, you are one of the last great heroes.
Baca Selengkapnya ....
Posted by Unknown
Kamis, 10 November 2005
This intelligent design debate just won't die, which is good for those that support the theory that life is so complex it must have had an intelligent designer behind it. As long as the debate continues, the theory itself gains validity. To smack it done as ludicrous and incredible would seem to be the obvious thing to do, but everyday there is another story of a group in power either approving the decision to teach it or striking it down as nothing more than "Creationism" with a slightly scientific backing. Recently this debate has been put to the courts to decide, and we are still stuck with a stalemate. In Dover, PA voters recently booted out 8 members of the educational board, all supporters of teaching intelligent design alongside evolution in the public school system. Thank you Dover for restoring my faith in Pennsyltucky. Feeling proud that my fellow Americans were starting to see the light I am smacked with reality as Kansas goes ahead and approves the teaching of intelligent design alongside what they (those that voted this in) call the "flawed theory of evolution". They also went ahead and re-defined the word science while they were at it. Now science is not solely "the search for natural explanations of Phenomena". These people cannot be serious. Here is a quote from Janet Waugh, a Kansas City Board of Ed democrat on the decision, it pretty much sums up what I and most likely many informed Americans are feeling:
“This is a sad day. We’re becoming a laughingstock of not only the nation, but of the world, and I hate that..."
I raised a point a few entries ago about why we as a nations were the only ones to be making a big stink about this. If intelligent design is such a rationale and non biased theory, then why are we the only ones to push it so hard? Well I got a comment on that one (Thanks for your thought anonymous) that said that the voices of those scientists elsewhere that supported this theory were being silenced by the majority. A fair but hard claim to prove. Well it looks like the Pro-evolution side has gained some heavenly backing. Recently, the Vatican came out with a statement denouncing intelligent design. I honestly did not see this one coming, buspokesmanan from this most Holy of institutions said that people were trying to literally interpret the story of creation which should not be done. Well if the Vatican says that they don't support it, then that should really be the end of it, man if it were only so easy. One last article highlights the cross examination oMichaelal Behe, author of "Darwin's Black Box" and a staunch supporter of ID who testified in the Pennsylvania court case last week. He was cross examined by Eric Rothschild, a lawyer opposing the school board in the case. Here is the link to the Slate article comparing this cross examination with a popular Monty Python sketch. Read the article to get a better feel for the comparison, look below for just the stand alone hilarity of it.
Q: Please describe the mechanism that intelligent design proposes for how complex biological structures arose.
A: Well, the word "mechanism" can be used in many ways. Â… When I was referring to intelligent design, I meant that we can perceive that in the process by which a complex biological structure arose, we can infer that intelligence was involved. Â…
Q: What is the mechanism that intelligent design proposes?
A: And I wonder, could—am I permitted to know what I replied to your question the first time?
Q: I don't think I got a reply, so I'm asking you. You've made this claim here (reading): "Intelligent design theory focuses exclusively on the proposed mechanism of how complex biological structures arose." And I want to know, what is the mechanism that intelligent design
proposes for how complex biological structures arose?
A: Again, it does not propose a mechanism in the sense of a step-by-step description of how those structures arose. But it can infer that in the mechanism, in the process by which these structures arose, an intelligent cause was involved.
I can't believe that someone would get on the stand in support of a cause and so miserably fail it. This short amount of questioning (which supposedly continues like this for several pages/minutes) is so absurd I would say that the crew of Monty Python actually came up with it and somehow got Behe to say it on the stand, like a bet or something. Sadly I think that this is really what ID has to offer, nothing but a veiled attempt to include religion in our school curricula.
Posted by Unknown
Selasa, 01 November 2005
Posted by Unknown
Kamis, 27 Oktober 2005
Check out these articles (1 and 2) for some quick reference on internet governance and why it's such a hot topic these days. The short story is that the rest of the world wants the US to free up control over the internet that it maintains through ICANN, and the US does not want to. Now here I see both sides of the argument. The US says that it is not so simple as handing over control of the domain names and day to day operations of the internet, and that giving up control may lead to a fractured and bureaucratic mess of an internet instead of the awesome and clean structure we have today. The other countries say that no government body, US or otherwise should be in power of the internet, and I tend to side with them. The internet might have started here, but it has grown immensely since it's inception and to keep is locked up in the US is something...Actually its something the US would totally do, proudly. My biggest problem with keeping the US in control of the internet can be illustrated using the domain fight over the .xxx domain which would have been reserved for pornography sites. What was previously an approved domain name by ICANN was tabled right before official approval because the dept. of Commerce (A US governing body, the one that oversees ICANN) said they got to much push back and disagreement from conservative Christian groups (what a shocker, yet again they are complaining about something that has little to do with them). This example right here should give considerable weight to any argument a country brings against the US concerning over-reaching rule of the internet by one country. A simple suggestion for the internet which is shared globally is shot down by pressure from a one small segment of a one small country. Does that really make any sense to anyone? It can't even really make sense to the people who told ICANN to table the idea indefinitely. I think someone needs to table these Conservative Christian groups indefinitely.
Baca Selengkapnya ....
Posted by Unknown
Selasa, 25 Oktober 2005
Yeah I knew I would be able to give an example of the 419 Emails that I have been talking about these last few days. I actually have not received one of these in a very long time, I think it's funny that I just received one, this is one of the classics.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: NEWMAN AKUME
To:
Cc:
Bcc:
Subject: DEAR(Aki)GET BACK TO ME ASAP.
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 14:52:04 +0300FROM MR.NEWMAN AKUME DIRECTOR INCHARGE OF AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING UNIT,CONTINENTAL BANK,COTONOU-BENIN REPUBLIC Dear Friend , Is my Pleasure writing to you at this moment of the day, I am MR NEWMAN AKUME, the director incharge of auditing and accounting Unit of Continental Bank in Cotonou-Benin Republic. I and my colleagues deem it fit to contact you regarding to a transaction that will favour both of us at the end, and i got your contact in my search for a reputable and reliable person to help me claim the fund in question. We discovered the sum of Fifteen million United States Dollars (USD15M) belonging to a deceased customer of this bank. The fund has been lying in a suspence account without anybody coming to put claim over the money since the account owner late Dr. Hamid Ayed from Idaho State, who was involved in the December 25th Benin plane crash. Here is the air crash website on cnn =http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/12/26/benin.crash/index.html The said fund is now ready for transfer to a foriegn account whose owner will be portrayed as the beneficiary and next of kin to the deceased customer of the bank. The foriegn account owner will impost himself as the next of kin to the deceased and respond positively like a true next of kin who wishes to speed up the release and transfer of his inherited fund. If the over due fund if not claimed by the end of next quarter, the government of the Federal Republic of Benin will take over the ownership of the fund in line with the Federal Edict Act of 1979. We do not want the government to take over the ownership of this money, that is why I contacted you for us to do the deal together, so that we will portray you as the bonafide next of kin to the deceased whose name is Dr. Hamid Ayed. If you accept to carry out this project with us, we will offer you 30% of the total sum, while I and my colleagues involved will take 70% of the total sum. Upon your acceptance to do this deal with us, we will jointly effect the transfer within 10 banking working days. Be rest assured that, this transaction carries no risk and no extra responssibilities on your part, except the above mentioned roles and normally you will be required to maintain absolute information and absolute secrecy throughout the duration of this transaction, because discussing it with a third party might jeopardise the entire transaction. Before we proceed in this great deal,i want you to forward to me ASAP the following information below as to establish a mutual understanding; 1)Your Residential/Office Address. 2)Your Telephone/Fax Number. 3)Your Age/Marital status. I am looking forward to receiving your interesting response on this project as this will greatly enrich both of us at the end. please You may contact me through my private email: or phone+229 97480 932 BEST REGARDS, Mr NEWMAN AKUME(newman_akume1@chile.com)
Baca Selengkapnya ....
Posted by Unknown
Senin, 24 Oktober 2005
And just like that my Rugby season has come to end with a crushing defeat at the hands of The Pittsburgh RFC, 17-10. It was a nasty game played in terrible conditions (if you were anywhere on the east coast this weekend you know what I'm talking about). Reasons for the loss? Short Prep/warm up time, not having the regular starting 15 all there and good to go at the same time, rainy cold conditions, and a general lack of preparedness. This is a team we spanked at the beginning of the season, and while we have gotten better, I would say they stayed the same. We simply did not bring our A game. Too bad, its over now with nothing but free time and the gym to look forward to in the upcoming death season some like to call Winter. We did not get home until around 12:45am, but that did not stop us from going out. Everyone on the team was generally disappointed so the night could have been better, but it was still a fun time. Because the weather was crappy I chose to leave my camera in the bag, so no good pictures this weekend, save for the late night video I like to keep to myself.
In the LA Times there is another article about those awful 419 scams, named after the Nigerian law that prohibits them. This article is a lot better than the one I posted about Microsoft helping Nigeria's cyber crime department in cracking down on these scams. This article deals more with the culture of the scammers and one man's adventure in the game, and why he chose to leave it. I am gonna have to say that the best part of the article is the few lyrics to the theme song of the 419 scammers called "I Go Chop Your Dollar". This whole concept seems absurd, but at least they can make a cool song/video out of it.
Here is something you don't read every day. Tech writer John C. Dvorak is complaining about the Apple media bias in newspapers and tech stories. Dvorak's main hypothesis is that because the people who write tech columns and stories are mostly 1)unknowledgeable about technology and 2) Mac users there is a bias in the media about Apple announcements while Microsoft gets the shaft even if they release a slew of good products. The theory behind this media bias thinking is good, but I don't agree. I think that media bias exists for certain topics and groups, but just not for Apple. If people keep on reporting things from the Apple camp, it could simply mean that Apple announcements and release of products is what is interesting people more, it's what's selling papers and getting readers to come to the site. Apple has been releasing a lot of consumer products lately which might make it look like there is a serious media bias, but I can't remember the last consumer product that Microsoft came out with. I mean besides Anti-spyware beta, the revamping of the MSN franchise, and the continuing updates to vista that your average user has no interest in, I don't really think Microsoft has done anything of real note that would compare to a story about Apple's Nano music player. I am not trying to knock Microsoft (which Dvorak also says is a bi-product of this media bias), I'm just saying that what he sees as a media bias may just be everything coming up Apple.
A reprieve for those that have been caught for driving under the influence in Florida. A law in Florida guarantees the right of those accused of a DUI to get all the details of the technology used to convict them. This gives them the right to get the hardware specs, manuals for use and related documents to the device and any changes to the device not contained on those documents. Well now the defense wants a little more, they are asking for the Source Code of the breathalizer itself. This does seem a little ridiculous, but the breathalizer in question was once recalled for a software bug so its not impossible that problems with the device could be found by inspecting the source code, but I doubt it. The company refuses to give up the source code because they claim its a trade secret. I am interested to see how this plays out, the company will most likely be forced to give up the code. Who is going inspect it? The company and lawyers will probably have to agree on a neutral party or something. I wonder if they are going find anything?
Baca Selengkapnya ....
