Fact.

I have just deleted a huge block of text, chock-full of links to Wikipedia articles about Travis County and Social Democracy.

To summarise:

Here are some good points to discuss when talking about socialised health-care systems such as the NHS. Is it mandatory? Is it even feasible if it's not mandatory? Should the state force people to indirectly pay for abortions or drug rehab clinics they may disapprove of? Those of you who actually think it's a bad idea can probably come up with more. I ackowledge that this isn't neccesarily a situation where there is an obvious right or wrong answer, though I'm all in favour of it.

Here is an argument I find less convincing.
"I had prostate cancer five, six years ago. My chance of surviving prostate cancer- and, thank God, I was cured of it – in the United States? 82 per cent. My chance of surviving prostate cancer in England? Only 44 per cent under socialised medicine.”

Hey, good use of facts to support your opinions! Except...

1)This fact is widely at odds with numbers in medical journals and NHS statistics
2)The fact came, in fact, from an article written by your campaign advisor
3)Said article was published in a partisan magazine, not a medical journal
4)His original source for the figure came out with a statement saying "Dude, that's totally not what we said, the UK has a better survival rate than the US."
5)Considered opinion is that this is pretty tough to judge but that neither system shows a significant advantage over the other
6)Even if it did, all it would prove is that the market system works for people who are former mayors of New York and millionaire knights.

Rudy Guiliani, loose a point for electioneering. Boo.

P.S. Not strictly related (let no-one say I engage in demonising my opponents), but I couldn't help but be reminded of this YouTube link.

!

Godsdamnit, I've been saying this for years!

Food for thought

Every good manifesto should start with the words "I think..."

So here are my two cents about GLOBAL WARMING!

The problem really, with global warming, is that if you say to a Climate Scientist (such as I hope to be in a couple of moons) "So, climate change. It's happening, right?" they tend to look a bit panicky.

And naturally so. They probably have a background in say, Physics or Maths, and they like things to be provable. They like graphs. They like experiments. What they don't like is when someone says "I disagree - prove me wrong" and they can't.

And that's the exact problem we face. We don't have a test earth, and it turns out Newton was wrong about some stuff, and unfortunately in the absence of a computer with a brain the size of a planet, we'll never simulate anything half as well as we'd like to.

And all this time, while we really think it's extremely likely that climate change is screwing us over even as we speak, there's nothing we can do. Personal conviction can be thwarted in the time it takes to say "Possible multidecadal oscillation - need more observations". By the time anyone has collected enough data, it will all be over¹.

The problem as I see it is not what we can do to halt climate change now², but what we can do to facilitate living with it. It's often misrepresented as a doomsday scenario - the world will end - but what I think we're most likely to have is a situation in which life continues in almost the same way for the western world, but Sub-Saharan Africans and Polar bears³ have a hell of a time. And that is what we really need to avoid. More should be done to help people in the firing line - flood defences, irrigation, hurricane proof homes.

In summation - I think we have the wrong focus. I'd love to be able to say that if we all work together, we can halt climate change, but no documentary is going to make people switch off their TVs. No concert is going to persuade people to catch the bus home if it's raining. Madonna shouting "If you want to save the planet, Jump Motherf*ckers!" solves nothing.

It's only right that climate change is a pressing issue for the generation currently in power. The issue for our generation is how we're going to live with it.

---

1. You could argue that this is a situation where we can't afford not to act. Well, tell that to the Government.
2. Though Geoengineering offers some interesting ideas, they do all sound like they have the potential to go horribly, horribly wrong. And frankly asking people in the West Midlands to recycle a bit more isn't going to do a whole lot for the rainforest.
3. Well, this cleared up a couple of my fears about Polar Bears.

Scientists gone wild

OK, in case you lot didn't know, I enjoy playing games. And I especially enjoy playing games that have a point to them, or games that involve numbers. That made the game I recently played with Nathan extra fun¹. But this is a different game, one that arose out of the fact that there's a road in Chicagoland that's called Euclid Avenue. That brought up the discussion about naming roads after people who were valuable in the sciences, not just politicians and activists.

So we got to a-thinking, about who we'd name streets after. And, just for fun, we decided that we'd limit our city plan to 26 consecutive streets, alphabetically. Sure, then we have to chose between Hooke, Halley or Heisenberg and Fr. Mendel or Mendeleev², but it's easier that way than having unending roads named after semi-obscure scientists.

So my game is: who would you have as your alphabetic roads, keeping in mind both scientific advancement and popular opinion of them?

My partial list;
(Archimedes, Boltzman, Curie, Darwin, Einstein, Faraday, Geiger, Hooke, and then I give up trying to think of an "I" without straining myself)


¹I am thinking of a rule which governs sequences of three numbers. The sequence 2-4-6, as it so happens, obeys this rule. Write down a sequence of three numbers on a card, and I'll mark it "Yes" for fits the rule, or "No" for not fitting the rule. Then you can write down another set of three numbers and ask whether it fits again, and so on. When you're confident that you know the rule, write down the rule. You can test as many triplets as you like.
²I really wanted to link to the Oscar Mayer Periodic table, but after 10 minutes of searching, I couldn't find images of Bolognium.

If only I could tell the ram to scram...

Today, kids, I'm going to rant about stupid people, yet again. Or, not necessarily stupid people, just people who don't think too well.¹

The first type of people are the partisans, those who don't think beyond what they're told. This came up since I've recently been reading a lot of the Daily Kos, a Democratic website devoted to winning at any cost. Now a lot of these people are pretty good thinkers, but the majority are just reactionary. If the Republicans say something, it must be bad, by the virtue² that the GOP is supporting it. It's thoroughly frustrating to read some of the comments.³ And, unfortunately, it's hard to avoid these people when there's so gosh darn many of the them and our nations espouse democracy.

The next ones I loathe are the sheeple. Those who just think as they're told. A good number of these people start out as malleable children and evolve⁴ into the partisans. That's what learning to answer a question on a test does as opposed to learning for the sake of learning or expanding the mind. And they don't think beyond what the media says.

Which brings me to the media. This is the worst group. But there's so much to say about this that I can't be bothered to type it all up. Perhaps when I have more spare time. Let's just say that I rue the media slightly less than I loathe politicians and the government.

What started this rant? Well, the inspiration was something I absorbed from the media. I'm not sure if I read it on the interwebs, heard it on CNN, MSNBC or Fox News, or read it in a newspaper (so I can't provide a reference), but it was an opinion by someone about our use of oil.⁵ They were saying that we should be ashamed at using oil for (solid) plastics when it's so much more valuable to burn. That's just a perfect example of group number 2. Why would oil be better to burn? Once it's burnt, it has no use whatsoever (except to grow things very indirectly), whereas in solid form it's practically indestructible and so reusable (and, I daresay, recyclable). Additionally, it's far, far cheaper to make alternatives to fuel than it is to petro-chemicals of most sorts. This is a perfect example of not thinking through an argument. And it made me mad.

So there you go. Sorry for a half-baked rant. Here, go play some games designed to make you think. The Illinois one is not fun at all, but it is fun being an oil god.

¹Full disclosure. I'm not stupid. I'm quite smart, in fact. I'm in the top 5 percentiles for both Mathematical and Verbal tests, and I do quite well analytically, too (but have never been tested aside from essay writing, which was broadly marked and in essay form. So far, I've written 5 essays since leaving high school, so practice may help on that front). I am, I have to admit, smart, and so slightly, ever so slightly, biased against people who judge and don't think things through.^6
2I get the irony.
³This may be due to the fact that I prefer the Republicans marginally, but I do get annoyed at similar right wing websites, so I'm going to believe it's the people, not the policies.
⁴Unless they're creationists, in which case they're set on a path by God himself and so shouldn't deviate from party lines.
⁵Every medium I use now tends to blend together, mainly because of the sheer volume I use, but also due to the facts that they all report 80% of the same news with different spins.
⁶Which, quite often, means that I'm biased against myself. But it's OK, I'm Catholic, so I feel guilty about it.

Point, Counter-Point.

There are unexpected downsides to re-entering the real world after three or more years in Oxford. The city doesn't feel like the real world, and the University encourages you to remain inside your four, comfortable walls (three in the case of Mansfield quad) and think only of your studies. Today I slept in until 12 completely accidentally because home is so incredibly quiet by comparison. Move to a real city and you'll start wondering why there aren't any Japanese tourists, people wearing rowing kit or chamber music concerts.

And then there are the people. Debate is pretty common-place in Universities¹ or so I hope. It's pretty standard to be challenged, to defend your point and if needs be, to concede. But entering the real world, all that changes. Take the following, which happened today:

My brother: The pope is a bigoted idiot, he hates women and his only reason is "because I want to".
Me: That's bollocks - what on earth are you talking about? He holds views that represent the fact that he's a Catholic.
MB: Yeah, but he has no reason for it. He can't back it up.
M: He's one of the most eminent theologians alive today - I think he can pretty much back up his arguments.
MB: Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about. I've studied this - I did GCSE RS.
M: GCSE RS? That includes a full critique of the pope's theology?
MB: *Continuing rant* Shut the fuck up, I know this because I've studied it - have you studied it? NO? THEN SHUT UP!

Exeunt MB.

---

1. Russell group, anyway.

Calculus and Liberalism

It has occured to me that, for a blog names after an obscure bible verse, it is only appropriate to get all up in some ethical philosophy every so often.

Therefore, further to Charlie's last post, let's do some internetting. I particularly like Morality Play and the PG-13 Taboo. Comments in the comments!

Failure is just success rounded down

Today, as you certainly know, is Approximation to Pi day. It is a global day of celebration for anyone who's ever approximated π. That is to say, used π. (If you can explain why the terms 'used' and 'approximated' are synonymous in the case of pi, you are an Approximation To Pi Day King/Queen).

Why today? Well, because today is the 22nd of July, or 22/7- and 22 sevenths is a bit more than three- in fact, it's about 0.001 more than π.

But heck, AtπD isn't just for scientists, mathematicians and other people who argue on which of Euler's equation or Maxwell's Laws is more elegant. It's for everyone! Go on, bake a pie. Or something similar to a pie. Maybe something you can use in place of a pie.

Me, I've got some Cottage Pie and some Banana bread in the oven. I'm kinf od worried about the banana bread, actually. Since I have no idea how to make it, I googled it and took whatever Link One said as gospel. Let's just hope it wasn't hoaxrecipes.com. I guess time will show if my loaf turns out to be a twenty-two seven or an Alabama.

Capitalist bastards

I have a long running debate with a friend of mine¹. Starbucks, everyone's favourite coffee shop, have several lines of coffee available in the shop. However, only one of them is fairtrade. Similarly, fairtrade coffee is available for no extra cost, but you have to ask. Now, are Starbucks doing enough considering the considerable power they wield over the world's coffee market?

I have always argued no. Although making fairtrade available is a good thing, many coffee chains (AMT, Coffee Republic) offer only fairtrade coffee. You might argue that people should make up their own minds and choose their own morals, but I usually argue that it's the luxury of the Western world that allows us that freedom, and many people are not so lucky. Companies should consider their responsibilities. Also, most people aren't that switched on. It's one thing to say you'll buy fairtrade and another thing altogether to remember to.

However, having had a "behind the scenes" look (woo, I'm a barista) I am changing my mind. Two things spring to mind - Many coffee shops are changing to fairtrade to try to attract customers, but there simply isn't another chain the size of Starbucks, and there may not be the supplies immediately available without huge amounts of groundwork and masses of investment. Secondly, Starbucks (to the best of my knowledge) don't recycle a damn thing. Perhaps they should sort that out before anything else.

1. Can you really ever be "friends" with a scot?

I don't care if you're Black/Asain/Jewish/Arab, just don't try to get my money

I've been a little bit bored from time to time, but it's nice to be able to see how biased I am and where I fit in spectra. I could link to the obvious¹, but really, who cares about that. That is SO last year. So, I'm going to link to the not so obvious. And the down right unobvious^2,3. And my summary is; Libertarian. I don't discriminate against Asains, Blacks, Arabs, Jews, and the disabled. I hate Jefferson and Roosevelt (FDR) and Bush equally, but favor Lincoln (a lot), Grant and Carter (a little). I am slightly biased against gays and the overweight, and I associated the sciences with men and the liberal arts with women. I don't think that most of the situations deserve money, or at least certainly not paid to the government (SPOILER - You're not supposed to know this before taking the test - I was about $72,300 below the average of $72,300 and change).

--------------------------------

¹I did!
²Yes, there's a word for this, but I'm too tired to google it.
³Admittedly, this links to the not so obvious at the end. And a few others.

Rather good

Quote for the day comes from George Mikes, 1960:

"A man in a queue is a fair man; he is minding his own business; he lives and lets live; he gives the other fellow a chance; he practices a duty while waiting to practice his rights; he does almost everything an Englishman believes in doing."

My Wacky Friend

Circa scrubs. I like parodying scrubs, but only scrubs series 1-3, because 4 and 5 weren't really all that funny. 

I am so often amazed by how generic people are. I realised this today when I was looking at my own facebook profile and I noticed that I had a favourite quote which was nothing more than one of my friends volunteering to have sexual relations with the other. It occurred to me that just about everyone in the whole world has something along these lines (either that or the line 'We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars'). I couldn't decide whether to feel ashamed ('U laf at me coz Im different, I laf at u coz ur all the same!!!1') or ever so slightly socialist ('Everybody belongs to everybody else'). 

I went for confused. 

Raving Vermonsters

Old news, I'm sure, but can any of you Yanks give me an update on how Vermont's secession bid is going? From the lack of coverage¹ I'm assuming it's being viewed in the same way we used to view the Raving Monster Loony Party trying to win seats², although to be honest the fact that they're gone for good took me by surprise. Come to think of it, the last thing I heard from them was that the leader had died and had passed on the leadership to his cat, so maybe it wasn't such a big shock.

Still, it seems people are insistent that the purpose of the party that everyone assumed was a big joke (no, really?) was actually a series of political protests designed to highlight inconsistencies in public policy.

Unfortunately, I'm not convinced.

1. It'd make the UK the 50th state rather than the 51st, so it's of great national importance, and a lot of bands will want to know about it.
2. With policies like "reduce class sizes by making children sit closer together", you can't lose!

Scariness

Dear Gosh! I can fit into the Panama Canal over 44,300 times and still have room to stretch! Fortunately, a T-Rex can only do it 6700 times. The real question is, how many of me does it take to make a T-Rex no longer hungry?

Vote Took/Brandybuck in Oh-Eight

Further excepts from my Adium logs.



Nathan: Faramir for President in 2008.
ActionMan: Who?
Nathan: The younger son of Denethor II, steward of Gondor? He's got the governing-dynasty action going on that the Americans love.
ActionMan: O right
Nathan: Plus, humility and education.
ActionMan: Didn't he lead a doomed force to a massacre?
Nathan: Osgilliath? Well, yeah, but only in order to gain the approval of his ineffective ass-bag of a father, who had failed in the same war.
Nathan: Wait a second...
ActionMan: See, you did it unconsciously.
Nathan: OK, what about Eowyn?
ActionMan: Well, she was meant to have good leadership skills.
Nathan: Though thinking about it, liberals won't like her hawkish record and conservatives are unlikely to vote for a woman.
ActionMan: Isn't Aragorn the logical choice?
Nathan: Man, I don't know. I mean, he is aweXsome, but I was never too comfortable with that "Numenorean master race" thing. I'd still pick Faramir and my first choice, maybe with Eowyn as VP.
ActionMan: You do realise that you can't vote for a president? Not even a fictional one?

Jimmy Carter Oh Em Gee

Jimmy Carter, southern gent and one of my all-time favourite Presidents, is going to be giving a lecture in Oxford this summer, and a fair few of us here are invited.

What does anyone know about this Hands Lecture business? Am I going to have to comb my hair? Should I shine my shoes? Will I have a chance to shake his hand? Would it be appropriate to wear Jimmy Carter merchandise?

When I argue I see shapes

That's a lie. But when I shut my eyes at the moment all I see is boats going past me. On the plus side, now they're rowing well.

When I open my eyes I either see revision or the guilt of non-revision. Probably the most nauseating aspect of blogging is the much-used phrase "hey guys, sorry I haven't updated recently..." as if anyone reads¹, but I feel an explanation, if not an apology, may be relevant as anyone who didn't know better might think I'd jumped off a cliff considering how much I write normally.

So anyway, topical observations - oral sex gives you cancer? Little known fact - it also gives you second hand cancer if you're in the same room as someone else doing it.

More to the point, everything that someone somewhere enjoys doing² will eventually give you cancer. Luckily, I don't think it's going to put anyone off. In the words of some James Bond baddie, 'there's no point in living if you can't feel alive' - although the Christian Right may argue otherwise.

On a less topical point, Scotty has been beamed back to Earth. Of course, we've only got his word for it that he made it to space at all. I'm skeptical.

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1. Self-loathing is my forte.
2. Sorry, I mean receiving.

War heroes and men of letters

The death of dear Jerry and a fit of Wikipedia has left me wonderin'. I wonder, specifically, how the Deep Reds¹ (as I like to call 'em) see Britain. I figure it's a fifty-fifty mix of admiration for all the wars we've fought together and contempt for all the wars we've fought.

In any case, I wonder how the Megachurch folk would react to what I have just read on Wikipedia: our TV-watching population voted Darwin (who you may remember from the £10 note) number four in the list of "Great Britons". While we're on the topic, quite a few of my picks didn't make the top 100, but I am very glad to see number 28 make an appearence. And America, you'll probably be interested to know that we found room for Thomas Paine. I'm not sure what he'd have made of that.

1. YOU DECIDE.

Heresy in a Box

I always thought I would have been more like Zeus. Perhaps 'cause I always liked the Greeks. Oh well. I'm not sure how which finger I picked, or how I like my one, matters much, but since this is on the tinternet, it must be scientific. I must say, though, I'm not turned off by omnipotence.

Which God or Goddess are you like? Your Result: Jesus You are God's lovechild. You love all and most love you. You help those who need it, and those too. The girls all chase you, and some boys too. You love to have fun, but you keep a serious life of working as well.Congratulations!! You are Christ!!
The Christian God
Budha
Goddess Bast
You are your own God or Goddess
Goddess Sekhemet
God Zeus
Satan
Which God or Goddess are you like? Make Your Own Quiz

And I have to say, whomever added "Child-like sense of wonder" to the labels, that's pretty much perfect for me. So kudos to you.

Send a droid

Sometimes, Science runs up against a brick wall. This tends to happen quite a lot in biology, what with their "high-level non-linear" jazz.¹ Let's say you want to know which combinations of protein folds and seasonings cause or cure, say, AIDS or cancer or whatever. Hey, I have an idea! Let's just try 'em all and check each one!

Back in the day, we had obsessive men of science like Tycho Brahe and that Napier guy. They advanced the cause of human endeavour by doing the same calculations over and over in minutely varying circumstances and making enormous tabloes of numbers. Today, we have robots to do the work of OCD aristocrats.

The idea is to let your computer do serious work instead of runnin' a screensaver. If the "good of humanity" angle doesn't strike a chord, think of it as an MMO: a series of slowly-filling progress bars that earn you arbitrary numbers of meaningless points. And there are no recurring fees!

In the last few days my computer has done about 30 hours of computation, in between me watchin' old episodes of Johnathan Creek and reading internet forums² about toast. Coincidentally, in that time I've worked 24 hours. Blarggh.

1. Honestly guys, it's much easier when you're trying to work out the properties of a single proton and a single electron in an infinite empty universe. Make a note of that.
2. Fora?

Dear America,

I just thought I'd write this letter to warn you. You are about to get invaded. Over the years, the cream of British talent, the finest minds, the best actors, the greatest sportsmen have been exported to Hollywood to make their place in the world. This year, they're all staying in the U.K., and you're getting Danielle Lloyd.

You've seen a few bad imports recently. Jordan and Peter or David and Victoria to name a few. This girl was actually Miss Great Britain, but she was stripped of her title for shagging one of the judges. Since then, stripping has become her thing. Her career seemed to profit from her involvment in the alleged racist attacks on 'Celebrity' Big Brother.

Please make sure she has plenty of clothes to wear, and maybe someone to help her dress herself - she seems to find it difficult, poor thing. I really hope she finds happiness in the U.S., so there's no chance she'll ever come back here.

Yours sincerely,

Alyssa

Exoplanets surprise scientists by obeying the fundamental laws of physics

Hurrah for Gliese 581c, the most compelling 'evidence' yet that there is life outside our solar system. Apparently it's something like a similar size to the Earth (R ~ 1.5 Re), and within the Goldilocks zone, the suspiciously named region of orbital radius within which temperatures are reasonable for life. The implications of these are succinctly summarised by the Science experts at the Daily Mail, who can reveal that Gliese 581c has "the same climate as Earth, plus water and gravity".

Well, this IS shocking stuff - Planets with gravity?

They'll be giving off radiation next.

Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew

Last night I baked a traditional english steak pie as proof to my roommates that England's awful culinary rap is somewhat unfair. Even my Italian roommate (who won't even eat most brands of pasta) enjoyed it. In celebration, I tried to replicate the terrifying alcoholic milkshakes that Sarah used to brew with secret herbs. Though decadent and delicious, they were not full of witchcraft - maybe a good thing?

In other news, our politicians are becoming even more ridiculous. I have to go eat more potatoes now.

How the future should have been

Ha ha ha ha ha! Stupid people who don't know about the present!

Giving up the goat

There is an old Turkish saying that goes as follows:

A woman for duty, a boy for pleasure, but a goat for ecstasy.

Well, apparently it's popular in Sudan as well.

Absolute quote of the day: "We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together."

'Be more British week'

This is my new idea. Ever since the Shirehall in Shrewsbury took down the Union Jack incase it offended ethnic minorities living in the town¹, I've felt a bit distressed by the fact that it seems like the only people it's OK to have a go at are the British². Of course, that makes me a conservative, which in turn makes me suicidal.
There are many aspects to Britain that I dislike. Birmigham New Street station, Football fans³, people who think bus shelters are the place to be on a friday night and the rest. But there are so many things we should be proud of and so many great traditions we should keep going. So in 'be more British week' (and I say British to please the European Union, because really I'd like it to be 'be more English week') I propose we spend a little while doing things we often forget. Drink tea hot, with milk. Spend an hour digging in the vegetable garden or cut the lawn. Talk to someone about the weather, or queue for a bus. Make a sarcastic comment, or satirical joke about Tony Blair. Say something quaint like 'goodness me', or drop something and exclaim 'oh sugar!'. Have your umbrella turned inside out.

Do it all safe in the knowledge that the world will be, in a small way, a more British place.

---

1. An idiotic suggestion, because Shrewsbury is the whitest town in Shropshire, which is in turn the whitest county in England. This isn't because of racism on our part you see. Put simply, it has few charms and plenty of downsides which you can only really ignore if you were brought up with them.
2. Especially the Welsh. If you must call them a people.
3. Who I witnessed in full voice at aforementioned station, singing the opening riff of Ring of Fire in a way that would make Johnny Cash depressed and thus combining two evils into a single, more vile offence.

Reasons they should never give me power

Three inventions that I think they should have;

Google Maps on airplane windows. I was flying from Austin, TX to Chicago a few weeks ago in the evening, and I wanted to see where we were. I didn't know, cause everything was lit up the same (ie, with those lovely sodium lights). It was terrible. I think that they should transpose the names of roads and towns on the windows. It'd make the process of flying more interesting.

Salt licks. I like salt. We need more of these. Cows and deer have them. Clearly we have the technology to make them - there's no difficulty in manufacturing them. Why can't I go to the supermarket and buy a stick of salt? I'm gonna blame Big Dave for this one.

Air dryers for bathrooms. Like the hand ones, but for me when I get out of the shower. I can't think of anything more unpleasant than stepping out of a warm shower onto a cold floor with cold air. So.... if you have a big vent on either side blowing warm air at you, then you dry off pleasantly. It's a win-win situation^1,2.

I have a whole bunch of other inventions, but they're not as good as these. Unless you count the one that I thought was brilliant and amazing, but promptly forgot the next day. Shame.

------------------------

¹Unless you have to worry about doing your hair. But that's not a problem for me.
²And unless you count the environment. Then it's a win-win-lose. And I'm not quite sure who the second win is for. Maybe manufacturers.

Adam and Eve on the Galapagos islands.

Those of you following the creation vs. evolution debate in the US might find the following interesting:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/heart_and_soul.shtml

(Apologies for my dismal ability to link properly, I know that Uncle Nathan is hanging his head in disappointment.)

Though I'd call myself a historical critic of the bible, and do not embrace a creationist standpoint, it is nice to hear a creationist asking intelligently phrased questions, for once. Whilst it is fun to ridicule the oemega sized brains of the Christian right, an intelligent discussion of a tendentious matter, really, for the religious, is a welcome addition to the debate. Also, it is interesting to note that in the original hebrew, the creation story is much more metaphorical than the literal rendering that creationists assume is an account of the actual creation of the world, and is treated as such by the rabbis. But then, the King James Bible came down from heaven on a cloud, G-d spoke English, and Jesus was aryan. Silly me.

Sparta hates freedom

The number of Americanised illicit references to 'freedom' in the film 300 (which, by the way, isn't anywhere near as bad as I wanted it to be) made me want to remember more about the battle of Thermopylae. So I hunted down my copy of Herodotus' histories and found the following - The three hundred were pretty famous and yes, they were all Spartan warriors. But at Platea, the Spartan army numbered 45,000. Of those, 5,000 were Spartan warriors. So who were the other 40,000?

Well who'd have though it. Slaves and peasants!

FREEDOM!

Pox Americana

Some doctors and researchers believed that Edgar Allen Poe was a carrier of Tuberculosis. Nearly everyone he had sustained, intimate contact with contracted the illness, and all of them died.

Like Poe, a cruel disease follows my path, spreading to my housemates and eventually killing them. This disease is Mononucleosis, known to your people as Glandular Fever. Last year, Andrew Lynch was lost to us; he fought valiantly, but in time the illness tore the life from his body. And now Gabe, my current roommate, is suffering the same fate. When will the bloodshed end? When will the agony stop?

I just can't fathom it.

Is this a good idea?

The 'learn all of the capital cities of all of the countries in the world' challenge.

Pretty self explanatory. Why? Because then you can convince people how cool you are by telling them you know the capital city of every country in the world and then getting them to ask you.¹

Rules:

1) Countries only. None of this dependent territories crap.
2) The unerring and unquestionable authority on this is Wikipedia.
3) Where at all possible, try to learn some kind of funny fact about the country/capital in question².
4) Use your new found powers for good, not evil.

I'm as far as Andorra. Capital city: Andorra la vella. This is going to be well easy.

---

1. Failing that, if you ever need to be diagnosed as being autistic, this is a sure fire way.
2. For example, Astana (Capital of Kazakhstan) literally translates as "Capital City". Most people would tell you the capital city of Kazakhstan is Almaty, but they'd be wrong. It used to be, but they changed it to purpose built Astana. Probably because Almaty means something ridiculous about apples. ('Father apple', or 'The apple that provides for us'.)

I'm so Indie it hurts

I'm prepared to say that this is the greatest love song I've heard recently. What's even better, the creator is as much a filthy hippy as me and so it's available for free download. Let me rephrase that: the compulsory price is zero dollas. If you want, you can give some money to a guy who's attempting to proove that the internet allows terrible financial decisions to become viable lifestyles. It's a cause I believe in.

I have been relatively silent for a while, mainly because I've been too dehydrated of creativity to feel that I should post anything I've encountered in life recently. Unless you're particularly interested in Jewish political history, of course. But I thought that you should all know that Mansfield's JCR motto, 'from the sublime to the ridiculous' was used in this evening's episode of The Archers. I'm sure it was a direct reference.

Exacerbating circumstances

The most infurating task ever to be burdened with has to be helping one's mother¹ sign up for a Skype account. I am going to broaden this to 'explain anything at all to do with technology to one's mother, who continues to blame her inability to understand the most basic concepts on the fact that she's fifty'. Incidentally, my dad has a computer science degree, so why she can't ask him I don't know. But back to my mother!

Not only is she the most painfully slow (and inaccurate) typist in history, but she barely understands how it is she is managing to aim spelling atrocities at me via my brother's MSN messenger account. I'm saving the concept of automated sign-in for another day. Frankly, she's still struggling with the basics, the internet equivalent of not being sure which hand is left and which one's right (there's a trick to that one²). Anyway, so once I've gone over the reason they ask for your email address³ and explained to her that there's no reason for me to send her her password via text message rather than msn (the Russkies will be monitoring text messages too you know!) I am rapidly losing patience, especially as I can apparently assume no base level of knowledge, despite my family having had internet access since 1997.

Anyway, I'd continue, but I just uttered the phrase "Well, you just plug it into the USB port" and I suspect this is going to take a little while to explain.

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1. Real mother, not the mother that first placed me in a boat.
2. It's "stop being retarded". I bet you thought I was going to say you can make an L with the index finger and thumb of your left hand. Common misconception - that L doesn't stand for Left. It stands for Loser, which you are if you still have to do this.
3. I'm starting to think it's a really a base-level IQ test.

So much for Alaska...

Due to some strange coincidences and my insane need to pack all of my things in suitcases and move every few months, I'm going to be working in Shanghai this summer. Next year is still up in the air: I may be in graduate school, working as a researcher, finding a job in government, or taking a year off from school while applying for a Masters program. I mention this because - while I know travel is difficult for impoverished ex-Mansfielders (like myself, otherwise I certainly would have visited England this year) - I would love to have guests. If any of you are in the area (Asia), let me know, and I will be happy to give you free food and lodging, making it a cheap way to see China. During mid-August (when my work is finished), I intend to travel a bit around the country. Feel free to join me.



Today's post is an exercise in procrastination; I'm in the midst of a thesis project that needs to make serious progress before Friday, the day Matt makes his annual visit. Sadly, no matter how many times I win Civilization 4, I'm still left without a perfect understanding of my topic. You'd think it would help.

Our common link...

...Mansfield. As the last of us to leave this cocoon of safety, this last bastion of eccentricity before people in the real world start asking us pressing questions like "You what?" and "Why are you wearing that stupid hat, it makes you look like a student", I feel obliged to appreciate it while I am here. As a friend once said, "You moan about it the whole time you're there, but you'll miss it like air once you're gone".

Sure, it may be poor. It may be small. It might be portrayed in the papers as being populated entirely by homophobic six year olds¹. But when you see something like the KFC Megabucket Challenge, it warms the heart, it really does. Six men, men of Mansfield, racing to finish a KFC megabucket meal including four large fries and 1.5l of carbonated beverage of choice.

Is there a nobler sport than competitive eating?

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1. Like after open mic night, when the JCR was allegedly filled with crowds of angry students singing "Paul Lodge loves it up the arse".

I am not a hippy

I have been an Environmental Engineer for almost six months. This might lead you to assume three things.

1. I own sandals and/or a poncho
2. I have facial hair
3. I listen to the Polyphonic Spree.

In this, you would be correct. However, beards and 6-minute tracks about sunshine do not a hippy make¹.

Allow me to quote from the "Overview" page of Module Seven in my taught Masters course notes.

"Nature runs on sunlight. Humankind runs on fossil fuels"
I see what you're saying, but industrial society runs on fossil fuels. Humankind runs on sweet potatoes and diet coke and pankeggs².

"Nature uses only the energy it needs. Humankind waste massive amounts of energy"
Firstly, "humankind" is singular in my book. Also, I'm not sure what you consider "nature". Or, for that matter, "waste". Does sunlight reflected into space count as a neccesary expense? Plus, nature increases its needs to match availability. Bear this in mind as we continue.

"Nature fits form to function. Humankind forces Nature's form to fit it's own function"
I agree that form matches function in most cases, but that's because useless forms tend to be mowed down and eaten. Actually, this isn't always the case. Plus, we're not the only species that does this whole form-to-function thing. In fact, aren't those two statements the same? How else did form fit function if not by being made to?

"Nature recycles everything. Humankind recycles next to nothing"
I should have guessed when you capitalised the word "Nature" in the last bullet point, but I think our worldviews are quite different. I'd define Nature as being the biosphere, that is, the closed system formed by the earth. As such, it has to recycle everything by definition: if it didn't, it wouldn't be nature. Moreover, Humanity is a subset of nature³. Humanity, like all species, is a waterwheel. We extract our existence from a flow of energy and material. Any subset of nature must have imperfect recycling, so that some matter is flowing to and from the rest of the system.
Also, if you mean that life recycles everything, why are there billions of tonnes of organic carbon buried in the crust? Is Humankind doing its part in recycling it back into the atmosphere?

"Nature rewards cooperation. Humankind idolises competition"
OK, now I know for sure that we have different theories of the world. I always thought that it was people who liked cooperation, and nature that said, metaphorically, "Compete. If co-operating is the best way to keep the other bastards down, do that."

"Nature banks on diversity. Humankind opts for monculture, destroys diversity"
Well, it's true that agriculture has a tendency to make this mistake. You know what, I'll concede this point.

"Nature curbs excesses from within. Humankind celebrates excess; greed is good"
Actually, the way that nature curbs excesses is the same way we generally do. Anything that can desire, desires more. It's only humans who can think about that and consciously decided they need less. Case in point: we are the only species to practice contraception. Also, I'm fairly sure most dictionaries put "bad" somewhere in the definition of "greed". I think it might even have made the Top Ten Sins or whatever.

"Nature taps the power of limits. There are no limits, says mankind"
Um... the power of limits, you say? Well, all I will say is that Toucan Broadband know all about limits, even on their "Unlimited service". If they didn't, I'd be in a better mood right now.

Reading this module has given me an insight into how Conservatives must feel all the time.

Maybe I ought to return my tie-dye kit.

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1. Does anyone know the origin of this construction? I figure it's either Yoda, Winston Churchill, or Germany.
2. The food of kings and the king of foods.
3. Maybe you disagree. It's OK, lots of people do.

Revelations

I had a bit of a surprise today. I realized that The Shins' album, 'Oh, inverted world' actually has more than one track on it. And some of them are good! Check it out, kids!

This fits in rather nicely with my idea of the day¹, which is actually less of an idea and more of a question. Where do I fit in?

If you believe everything you read, there are two types of people at Oxford. There are people from extremely privileged backgrounds who aren't very bright, but got in because their daddy used to play silly buggers with the tutor². The other kind are the studious, hard working and extremely bright diamonds-in-the-rough, 'doesn't know how to use cutlery but you should see what he's got to say about T.S. Eliot' who studies by candle light wearing fingerless gloves and scrapes and saves to afford a can of baked beans a week. Actually, that's communists.

When one of the former gets rejected, nobody but Daddy cares. When one of the latter gets rejected, people get angry.

What about us? I went to a private school, which should put me firmly in the toff category. But wait - I had my fees paid by the government from 11 onwards because my dad was a full time student. And in school I outperformed a lot of girls paying full fees. So it's ok, guys, I'm back in the poor and deserving category.

But let's examine results. Because I'm such a charity case, I have to do better than all my other private school friends. This is frankly not happening. I'm working hard this year to pull up to a 2:1 not because I am driven by the plight of my situation, but because I am vain and my grandad will get angry if I don't get one. Maybe if I ask my parents to suddenly lose all their disposable income, my results will pick back up?

My point really is that I don't fit in anywhere in the above scenario. Most of my friends are the same. Partly I think it's disillusionment from coming up to a college with an excellent college spirit but very little in the way of facilities. Or maybe it's because this fictional Oxford just doesn't exist any more.

Either way, I've succeeded in confusing myself. And now it's time for dinner.

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1. Because the album is all about confusion and conflicting bittersweet emotions all wrapped up in the pain of reaching adulthood realizing you're meant to be somehow 'grown up'. At least, that's how I hear it.
2. "His father and I used to break wind for our college" - General Melchett, Blackadder goes forth.

Hush. Daddy's here.

"The Bible never says anything about dinosaurs. You can't say there were dinosaurs when you never saw them. Someone actually saw Adam and Eve. No one ever saw a Tyrannosaurus rex."

Fossils = Satan's bag o trickz

Note: this post exists because I - being a n00b bl0gg3rz - can't make links, and the comment section cut off my link.
Alyssa, your entire argument is refuted by the beliefs of the new prophet: Carl Everett.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/cover/news/2000/07/19/everett_flashback/
Picture of the New Lord:
http://imagesource.allposters.com/images/pic/PHO/AAGP113~Carl-Everett-2005-Studio-Plus-Posters.jpg

Freedom of Hurricanes

I was thinking, in between my bouts of obsessive hurricane viewing and trawling conservapedia for gems of 'wisdom'¹, about freedom.

Now we all know that America loves freedom. And we know that nasty people with beards don't love freedom. Neither do people who blow up aeroplanes, or say that global warming is happening, or suggest that science alone be taught in science lessons. Richard Dawkins almost definitely hates freedom, and so does Gillian McKeith².

The problem is this. And don't go expecting me to come up with any kind of argument or conclusion here because I'm just spouting crap to avoid having to go and write my hurricane essay.

Throughout time, there have been a lot of people who were not very intelligent, or easily misguided. The saving grace of the situation was the few such people (village idiots, that kind of thing) whos views were actually dangerous³ tended not to be born very often, and rarely get together to have a big think about the meaning of things. The views of the public and the views of the media moderated each other, with a good help of Government policy, finished with a hint of Patriotic bias. Then along came the internet.

It is a great thing, I believe, that through the internet information has become more readily available. The problem being that it is entirely unmoderated, and anyone can use it as a platform for their views. The climate of misinformation is merely a product of the climate of information freedom, and I for one do not believe it to be something that can be stopped.

I just wish they'd come up with something better than the Hurricane Katrina entry in Conservapedia.

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1. And in one extreme case, typing in "hurricane" to conservapedia to see what came up. Unfortunately, all I got was Katrina. Conservapedia has a little way to go before people actually start to use it as a source for reference in my opinion.
2. Freedom hates Gillian McKeith.
3. Of course, this is entirely subjective. I think someone who thinks relativity has 'nothing to do with physics' is a hopeless, dribbling moron of epic proportions, but they are of little danger to me because if they ever come near me, I'll hit them with an SR textbook. However, if I told them that I do not believe that fossils are put there to fool unbelievers, to them I am the antichrist.

Hurricanes

This is all I think about at the moment. I eat, sleep and dream hurricanes. In all fairness, it's pretty cool.

I've started to quantify everyday things in terms of classification of hurricanes. For example, if something is good then it's a factor 5.

622 days and counting...

OK, I was thinking about this during the last week (trying to avoid the broohaha about Anna Nicole Smith {did you know that CNN had an hour and a half of uninterrupted coverage when they discovered it? As The Daily Show pointed out, that makes it more important than a State of the Union, but less than 9/11}), and I was looking through the list of Presidential Candidates (announced and tipped) and compiled reasons why I won't be voting for them.

Mitt Romney; He's pandering to the Republican base on abortion and gay marriage (and quite possibly stem cell research, but he hasn't flipped his stance on this one, so you never know...). This turns me off. A lot. I don't like panderers. And I won't vote for someone who changes their convictions based on the base. Damn populists.

John Edwards, Hillary Clinton; They're pandering to the base on the war in Iraq. I'm not liking this either. I know that some of you (read all of you) will have a different opinion to the war than me, but I don't like it when people pull their support when it becomes unpopular (unlike Obama, who I respect and admire for opposing the war). Also I don't feel that we should just let a civil war happen and huge Iraqi casualties. An American life is not worth more than an Iraqi one. We just need a new President. And Vice President.

Barack Obama; I just don't like his views on a lot of issues. Like his voting record to make pharmacists supply the morning after pill. Or Catholic doctors perform abortion. I respect him, and think he's Presidential material, but I don't like his policies. Sorry. And it's not like he'd lose Illinois, anyway.

Sam Brownback; As Julian Mansfield put it, the Christian Coalition likes him. I don't. One Evangelical in the White House this century was enough.

Newt Gingrich Ha!

Tom Vilsack; He quit today, just two months after entering, and 11 months before the first caucus (in his own state). Wow, that's fast.

People who I'd consider voting for, conditionally;

John McCain; Stop pandering to the religious right. Stop it, or you lose my vote. And don't authorize torture. DON'T.

Rudy Guiliani; I like your federalist views, especially on gay marriage and abortion. But I don't like your civil rights history. Convince me I'm wrong.

Al Gore; I'm liking you more and more, especially on the environment. Persuade me.

Bill Richardson, Mike Huckabee; I don't know enough about these guys, but what I've heard I like. And they were governors.

--------------------------

And for you out there who don't get a vote in the election, a nice fact about the biases of America. As far as I can tell, the homosexual and the Atheist are the only two not running for President. But it looks good for me, if I were to run.

I have nothing bad to say about February

With St. Valentine's Day as the only exception (I realize that it is a contentious subject for some people), isn't February a great month? You've got all the perks of winter - snow, pleasantly chilly weather, sliding around on solid ground, and wearing long sleeve shirts under short sleeve shirts - without the brutal cold of January, the hectic Christmas season, the rain of spring, or the foul humidity of summer. And my thesis isn't due for another month and a half. I love you, February.

February brought me something else: The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. When this appeared on the reading list for one of my courses, I cringed in horror - 600 page books about ancient Greece? Does anyone like this besides Trevor the Plutocrat? But after reading the first two books, I realized my mistake. This is a must-read for anyone that enjoys epic, glory-obsessed military/political history. One of Pericles' speeches (intended to rally the Athenians) gave me the elusive non-sexual tingly-feeling - more than 2000 years later. The democratic prewar deliberations on both sides and the events leading up to the ultimate conflict are incredibly interesting.

I'm writing this from a weightroom in a sophomore dormitory - my other job. If I make the horrible mistake of not blasting music when people come in, they immediately turn on the radio. Today was CLASSIC ROCK RADIO, one of my least favorite things. When I was in middle school, I thought that classic rock was great...before I realized that classic rock stations played THE SAME SONGS OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. NO MORE STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN l;aksdjf alw;erja;lksdfjal;skjliawejflkasdjflawerhfiasdjglaksjsgl;waieejtlasngljjsdnfa.

The Reformation was stupid anyhow

One of the things I like about living inthe Old World is the opportunity to chance of seeing archaic language on the front page of my newspapers. Case in point: "schism".

I kind of hope this schism does happen, though mostly because I'm curious. After you've separated from the fundamentalists and Anglo-Catholics from the Church of England, what will be left?