I hope no one dies when reading Balderdash!, then
***
A new season has started! Power Rangers SPD - protecting Earth from evil space aliens.
SPD emergency!
Ahh...
Power Rangers SPD,
Power Rangers to the rescue!
Go, Go, Go, Go!
Power Rangers SPD,
Power Rangers to the rescue!
Go, Go, Go, Go!
Heroes on your side,
Heroes for all time,
Out to save the universe!
No matter where you are,
If it's near or far,
You can always call out
Space Patrol,
Space Patrol,
Space Patrol,
Space Patrol Delta!
Go, Go, Go, Go, Go, Go
Power Rangers Go!
Power Rangers SPD,
Power Rangers to the rescue,
Go, Go, SPD!
The theme indeed lives up to the promise of the demo tape; Aaron Waters aka Ron Wasserman is back to do the music for Power Rangers SPD, not having been on the show since the early Zeo days! And I must say the music (theme and score for the show) is fantastic.
All 5 rangers are also American - no more annoying assumed American accents!
***
"Males with long hair will be attended to last"
More Keywords: "Men with long hair", "Guys with long hair"
FriskoDude dug this up some time ago, so I decided to see how many of the criteria I flout.
"Hair falling across the forehead and touching the eyebrows" - My finger points to my eyebrow. Check.
"Hair covering the ears" - I am pointing to the bottom of my earlobe. Check.
"Hair reaching below an ordinary shirt collar" - This one's not so clear, but you can see the hair at the right of the picture reaching below my collar. I have a short neck, so the hair at the back of my head isn't as long as it might seem, but - heck. Check.
Now let's hope I get a decent hair length by the time the next semester opens!
My uncle told me last night that he had longer hair than me in the 70s, reaching down to his upper back. I asked if he was ever served last, and he said that if anyone did that you could just give them a piece of your mind, so.
***
NUS beats Princeton, Cornell in social sciences ranking
"The National University of Singapore (NUS) has come out ahead of well-known American institutions like Princeton, Cornell and Columbia in a worldwide ranking of universities for the social sciences.
In the latest survey results, released by the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES), NUS came in 10th among 101 universities. Princeton came 11th, Cornell 13th and Columbia 14th."
I recall that when the prior ranking came out, some people pointed out that much of the ranking depended on "peer review" - asking academics their opinions of various universities in their region, and so all the PRC academics who feted NUS for its Science and Engineering faculties boosted it disproportionately.
This time, this is much less of a factor than previously, so.
***
Someone on an essay: i can't believe it
i'm using an irc log as one of my references
:0
Someone on the Miranda Forums: "Can i use "By some mysterious process, it makes people change nicknames more often than they changes their clothes" as a sig pleaaaase? :)"
A heartening tale:
"I also believe in secular philosophies too...unfortunately my herdmates still don't...
did I tell you my bro and I have started going into deconversion...
he deconverted one of his friends...by instilling in him a lack of self-doubt...
telling him that all he needed to do in life was to change the way he acted and thought to become more confident...
and even imparted him some pickup skills...
basically he told his friend that God does nothing, and all that Xtianity does is take your self-doubt away by placing it in the idea of a "God" and giving you friends in church..."
Verily, this tale puts me to shame; I haven't been doing my part.
***
Those who support Intelligent Design over Evolution, when shown clear cases of bad design, like to argue that this semeingly bad design may in fact be good - we just don't know it yet. Champions of theodicy likewise argue that what may seem to be bad or evil may in fact be necessary to further the greater good - we similarly lack the wisdom to see it.
The problem with this line of thinking - second guessing our judgment or knowledge, besides the obvious one of starting with a conclusion and then working backwards, torturing all the data to fit the conclusion, which happily makes the conclusion unfalsifiable, is that then anything may be justified. Heads I win, tails you lose. The game is rigged against reason and reality.
For example: The Holocaust was justified because it serves the greater good! In that case, why blame Hitler and the Nazis? What they did after all was in service of a greater good.
War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength. This sort of Orwellian Double Talk does nobody any good.
Hell, two can play at this game. Who's to say that what looks like good design is not in fact bad design? All supposed proof of an Intelligent Designer may then work against him. Might we not posit that all the arguments that ID theorists use may not one day come crashing down on them?
Who's to say that what looks like goodness, grace, benevolence and blessings is not ultimately, in the long run, bad?
***
You come across the following notice on the wall:
"All notices posted on this wall will be considered illegal. -- By order"
Would you be legally bound by it?
If the prohibition declared by the notice is valid, then it will also include itself. This means that the notice itself is considered illegal. If it is illegal, its declaration cannot be legal.
The notice itself is a self-contradictory statement.
Unfortunately, this argument won't hold up in a court of law, especially not a Singaporean one.
In other news about screwed up law:
When is copying not right? Here's a video guide
"Like that image you see on the Internet? Don't even think about copying it for your presentation. You may end up on the wrong side of the law... owners of copyrighted material can bring civil suits against violators. And there is provision for copyright owners to pursue damages of up to $200,000 under the Act.
'IP owners have the right to institute civil action against all infringement activities regardless of scale. It is therefore in everyone's interest to be educated on the proper use of copyrighted works in our everyday lives'"
Fair use and academic use have just gone down the drain, not to mention the principle of proportionality of punishment. It is fitting that justice is both blindfolded and a female, for otherwise miscarriages of justice would be impossible [Addendum: A theory I heard a lawyer espouse was that Justice is female because only females can have miscarriages].
The problem with instituting policies by fiat is that when you screw up, you cannot blame anyone else, and the unintended consequences are unpredictable. For example: the "Stop At 2" policy comes to mind: it was successful - too successful, and policy makers now are still suffering from its successes.
What will be the unintended consequences of our draconian copyright laws, I wonder? A dearth of creativity, which we are supposedly encouraging?
***
Young Johnny had been blind since birth. His mother had always explained to him that it was God's will and must be accepted.
One Sunday, Johnny's mom came home from church and told Johnny that she'd had a conversation with God and He agreed that it was time to let Johnny see. "He said if you'll pray real hard and fast every day this week, next Sunday you'll be able to see".
Young Johnny hardly ate a bite that week and spent his every waking hour praying and waiting for Sunday. By Saturday night he was weak from hunger and exhausted from praying and he dropped off to sleep in great anticipation of morning. Johnny woke to the sound of church bells on the soft Spring morning. He lay with his eyes closed for several minutes to savor the coming event. Slowly, he opened his eyes, and to his great dismay, realized he was still blind.
"Mom!" the lad yelled, "I still can't see."
His mother, touching the boy's head softly, said, "Yes, I know Johnny, April Fool!"
This is awful (in more than one sense), even by my standards.