Emergency, Dekaranger! Transform!


Doggie Krueger explains to Dekaswan how his face fits in his helmet.



Sentai Manga - now that's something new.

"You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans." - Ronald Reagan

***

You Have No Soul

To the untrained eye you appear a normal human. But deep down inside, you are cold and empty. You are one of the Undead! You hate the living and seek them out Break out the holy water and sharpen the stakes! It's time to go a-huntin' Souls you are most compatible with: None

What Kind of Soul Are You?

***

The OED gives one (and only one) pronunciation for "angst", namely: "air'ngst".

Of course, my sister insists that "ah'ngst" is the one (and only one) correct pronunciation.

So she has once again surpassed herself in proclaiming her linguistic authority.

***

When Cosplay goes wrong:

http://www.geocities.com/kyorycosplay/Moulin7.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/kyorycosplay/ama3cross1.jpg
http://www.dragonsgate.net/photopost/data/506/32IMG0291.jpg
http://img24.photobucket.com/albums/v71/mi...ailorbeard2.jpg
http://img24.photobucket.com/albums/v71/mi...sailorbeard.jpg
http://img24.photobucket.com/albums/v71/mi...ay/manfaye1.jpg
http://img24.photobucket.com/albums/v71/mi...ay/manfaye2.jpg
http://img24.photobucket.com/albums/v71/mi...shnwolfwood.jpg
http://www.fortunecity.com/business/johns/.../naagasword.jpg
http://www.cosplayuniverse.com/cosplay/man.../3/lil_qoh2.jpg

***

One of the most irritating things about LiveJournal is the plethora of LJ clones.

As far as I know, we have had, at various points in time: DeadJournal, uJournal, GreatestJournal, Blurty, Plogs, NeedlessPanic, Aboutmylife, Minilog, JournalFen, Crazy Life, DrivelBox, Got Diary?, MindSay and Tigre Journals.

These, like their step-brother LiveJournal, are bitches to people who don't register (not remembering commenter details, for example), yet add no significant value.

The result is that people are pissed off by all these LJ-wannabe sites, since their friends are likely blogging on more than one of them.

***

solsetur fantasises:

You know I think if I did 'Unmasking Agagooga - Man Behind The Blog' then I'll be pimped by Mr Brown. From the stuff he has posted on mrbrown.com I'm very very sure he has an unhealthy obsession over you. It's cause for suspect muahaha...

Too bad for her; Sheena has already done an expose (of sorts) on me. Aww.

***

More amusing anti-Mac comments:

honestly, i dun see why SWH's comments should cause so much indignant shocks. It's not as if mac users haven't slammed microsoft users before? i am sorely anti-apple because of the sheer overwhelming numbers of times when I've encountered apple snobs. and no, i treat my PC well, and I haven't had any BSoD or viruses etc. they're just machines.. stop worshipping them! Apple comes up with good products. that's it. But Microsoft is not hell and it's not stupid people who buy it. Yes, I was told "aiyoh buy a PC, only stupid people buy PC"... grrrr... snobs. and the best retort so far "yeah i'm a snob.. I can afford to be." fine. whatever.

Isnt it ironic that Apple fans who are supposed to "Think different" all "Talk alike"?

Stupid people buy PC, gay people buy Mac.
There!


Anybody who knows a Mac fan, knows that they are incapable of logical reasoning or price/benefit analysis when it comes to Apple products.

Steve Jobs jolly-well can sell magic stones with healing properties and plenty of Mac fans will tell you how it cured their cancer/piles/AIDS.

The fact is that if Apple is the monopoly Microsoft is, we will still be using Mac LC or something that ancient, and it would still be called insanely great.

The fact that Apple fans make it their mission to irritate/flame/denigrate non-Mac fans is the very simple reason why Apple can never dominate the world.

It boils down to the fact that Apple fans pay a lot for the brand and desperately need affirmation.

***

The Risset Scale - "The Risset Scale blends each tone from this special octave into the next tone, over and over again. This blending, combined with the complex and ambiguous tonal information of each note, creates the illusion of an endlessly rising tone - or of an endlessly descending tone."

Christians issue gay warning on SpongeBob video - "Conservative Christian groups accuse the makers of a video starring SpongeBob SquarePants, Barney and a host of other cartoon characters of promoting homosexuality to children."

***

Apparently there are many unemployed engineers who are going into teaching. I thought engineering was supposed to be a "safe" degree. Ah well.


I tried what was formerly the 2nd worst Chicken Rice in Singapore (if not the world) - the one in the arts canteen, which has a sign proclaiming: "New cook, new taste". Amazingly, it has become, if anything, even worse, such that it can now compete with the worst Chicken Rice in Singapore (if not the world). Gah.

I have finally tried the legendary Bambinos at the Science Canteen. I had spaghetti carbonara, and not only were the spaghetti strands clumped together, the sauce tasted like diluted Cream of Mushroom soup. Which is an improvement, I'm told, on the last time, when it was sugared milk.


Quotes:

[On a network folder] We change it every sem[ester]. So when you graduate - no point trying to hack in.

[On answering the question she posed about the text] I have no idea. That's why I asked the question.

Don't you guys wish you had wheels in your chairs, so you could spin around like me?

Unit 3: Give me the answer to the meaning of life. That'd be great for me

Day'car (Descartes)

[Me: Then he lambastes Descartes] Descartes's been lambasted for centuries. He can take one more lambasting in our class.

Both are just sensual'ry experiences (sensory)

Days'cart (Descartes)

The glare will dis'dress him (distress)

If you so choose to do (choose to do so)

Elascity of demand (elasticity) (written and spoken)

Pluck back into the equation 2 (plug, equation)

The book uses 'c' and 'f'. Very confusing. So I use 'x' and 'y'.

I give you a break after this *stirrings from audience* Yah, you'd like that. (I'll)

[On the break] I give you... just go out, go to the toilet, and come back

[Me on FHM: I last read it when I was a slave]... You mean you all get it for free?

[On the class roster] And now I do attendance. In part I do attendance because that's how I remember all your faces. As you can see, these pictures are not terribly accurate... The hair has become longer in the female population (take)

[Student: My dog loves durians...] It's very nutritious. Orang Utans love it. I don't know why I don't like it.

[On the 9am fieldtrip] Unfortunately I had to move it to 10:30[am]. Not because I couldn't get out of bed. (can't)

The Origin of Species, which he calls an abstract. 500 pages. The longest abstract ever.

[On why the captain needed an unpaid naturalist on the HMS Beagle] This guy basically wants someone to talk to him during this long journey

Gala'pah'goes islands (Galapagos)

He had more of a cloud (clout)

Is it very hot today? Look at my cup of Coca-Cola. How many of you would want it? *almost no one puts up their hands* Come on, play lah.

At every priced (price)

In your normal experience, that's what you experience too (find)

The demand curve for other fractors (factors)

Where I come from, Alberta beef is very very good, but they have Mad Cow Disease now.

Complement goods. When you use one, you use another. Tea and coffee (complementary, the other, milk)

Nowadays I see you guys and girls changing your handphones every 6 months.

Icks and chickens (eggs)

boo'khas (burkhas)

[On Vietnam entering the market] The price of coffee fell tremendously. But when you go to Starbucks, coffee is still four fifty.

I confused you. No wonder you're looking so strange. (puzzled)

Everyone loves Steven Lim, "Singapore's Most Handsome Guy": the "Famous Street Eyebrow Plucker In Singapore N Yellow Swimming Trunks Stripper in SG Idol!", so I tried my hand at making LJ icons of our very own Singapore "Idol".







This is my first attempt, so suggestions/comments are actively solicited.

[Addendum: On reflection, maybe I should leave the icons as they are, so they are as crude, awful and disgusting as the person himself!

But I'd still like to know how to make nice LJ icons, for possible future projects.]

"This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force." - Dorothy Parker

Random Playlist Song: Robert Shaw Festival Singers - Amazing Grace (American Hymns and Spirituals) - His Voice as the Sound.mp3

***

Referrer to my homepage:

http://myedumail.moe.edu.sg/frame.html?rtfPossible=true〈=en

Gasp.

***

If I were asked to come up with an equitable online MP3 downloading service, I'd probably come up with something similar to ALLOFMP3 or MP3Search.Ru.

These offer MP3 downloads (ie the files you download aren't restricted) at reasonable prices; MP3Search.Ru offers many (most? all?) songs at 10 cents per download, with the occasional free track, albeit usually very short, thrown in occasionally for good measure, and AllOfMP3 charges according to the bit rate of the MP3 you download (US$0.02 per MegaByte). The former even offers streaming 24kpbs 16kHz previews of the whole song, unlike the wimpy 30s previews that most other services have.

I believe most people would be willing to pay such reasonable prices, given that downloads are fast, you don't have to wait, since unlike P2P networks queues don't exist, and best of all, the artists and labels get paid.

So, you might ask, what's the catch?

Both of these sites are hosted in Russia, and their services are perfectly legal under Russian law. Unfortunately, that won't protect you if you're from another country and get caught for copyright infringement.


Artistes and labels are still trying to reap economic rent (registration not required) from their works, 50 long years after they were first placed on sale, and after they'd recovered their initial costs many times over. Most ironic then, that those who lobby the hardest for copyright extensions, being the most successful content producers, with the deepest pockets, are those who need the least incentive to create new content. To think that patents for drugs and other such goods (which surely are much more expensive to produce and research) last 20 years at most.

***

Thanks to the blessings of Fortuna, I've retained a 4 day week, and without 5 hours of lessons straight too.

Looks like sacrificing that heifer was a wise thing to do. I must look into votary offerings next time!


Someone: this current batch of exchange students in biz are mostly europeans

Me: how do they stand all the shrill, anorexic, chinese speaking ah lians?

Someone: lol... you think the ah lians are gonna act like that? they're magically transformed to english-speaking, affected, wide eyed girls


Respondent 1: i would think that the europeans would be more put-off with the fako accents because if there's anything worse that shrill anorexic-sounding chinese, its fako anorexic-sounding english

Respondent 2: if u're e sort tt likes plain Janes and muggertoads, stop at engin
plentiful still on e shelf =P
i realised each faculty got its own speciality
for science and School of Computing there r plenty of cheena gals ard

Respondent 3: : actually, they don't need to say anything in the first place. girls are best appreciated with their mouths closed - angmoh exchange student.
europeans lah. they're all looking for fuck buddies
don't need to say so much. just do it and drink afterwards. or before
yah they're on holiday anyway
bo chup bo hiew bang, fuck and screw

this one girl followed an exchange student back to PGP. he had to go use the loo and when he got back she was naked on his bed.
he told her to put her clothes back on and that she should leave

well that's the story he told me!

Me: hahahah I wonder how common such stories are

Respondent 3: i don't know actually
prob not as common as singaporeans fucking away in raffles hall


Someone on tutorial bidding: fortunately for me science uses neon another sys
downside is that its really first come first served

Me: how come science is so special

Someone: coz we're a nation of kiasu chao muggers
if not why first come first served
u know how it works or not
must camp in front of ur comp and log in exact on the spot leh if not if the slot u want is hot that's it

Me: why not ballot like the rest of the school

Someone: coz we're a nation of KIASU chao muggers.
and must TRAIN to be so

Me: haha social engineering


Observations on lessons in the Premier Institution of Social Engineering (incidentally, thanks to me, searching this on Google brings up the NUS site as the 4th result in the list):

But one can never escape annoying classmates. like this long-winded philosophy major with a prissy arty farty accent and a tendency to ramble on and on like he's in love with the sound of his own voice.

or this Bimbo-Minus-the-Looks who actually asked out loud for the benefit of everyone around her, "Should I go to the toilet? [pauses as though waiting for answer to drop from heaven] Hmm I probably shouldn't hold my bladder for a whole hour." If only she were pretty, i would tune out the audio signals and just focus on visuals. but i suppose for every person out there with both looks and intelligence, there has to be someone like her...

(Link not included in a feeble attempt to preserve the person's privacy)

Ah, the joys of having an unknown blog where one can make this manner of semi-snide remarks at will :)

Meanwhile someone else has a novel definition of nirvana: it is the stage whereby you simply do not know wad to ask becos u do not know anyth in e first place


EN5243 - The Birth of the Critic

Reviews:

"A breath-taking thumbs-up module, even though it hasn't technically begun..."
- Martin Scriblerius XI

"Lots to read but nearly nothing to buy. ... The cheapest period course on the planet! One is even tempted to say that it could be the best of all possible courses!"
- Pangloss, Ph.D (Westphalia)

"Puts its institution a great many levels above the Grand Academy of Lagado!"
- Lemuel Gulliver

Heh. I'm tempted to add a few of my own, but can't think of a suitable literary in-joke.

***

Techno Prince relates a tale of gore, ichor and antennae, which would not be out of place in a primary school narrative essay (heh):

"The cockroach, its body partially mangled, is still alive, but barely. Its cuticle, which has helped its kind persist through the eons, could not withstand the crushing jaws and shearing carnassials of my dog’s mouth. I notice a section of its abdomen that appears somewhat crushed, and a leg is twisted at an odd angle. It creeps along on its belly pathetically, seeking reprieve, seeking dignity and a quiet place to live its final moments.

But my dog will deny it even this. Her curiosity piqued once again by my inspection, she gets up and stares at the now-still cockroach. Her body tenses. She crouches slightly. For a moment, I think I have caught a rare glimpse of the predatory fire that still burns deep within my dog. Generations far removed from the wolves that would give rise to all domestic dog breeds, she still retains some of that spark, that instinct, to sustain life by taking the lives of others. She pounces.

The cockroach is defenceless. My dog paws it repeatedly, then catches it between her incisors and tosses it. It lands on its back once again, kicks the air in a frantic attempt to escape, and then stops moving..."

[more]

***

Intelligent design: comparison to other beliefs about origins

"What kind of God does ID attempt to prove the existence of?

ID researchers only attempt to prove that a super-human intelligence existed in the universe. Many only speculate on the nature of that intelligence; they do not try to prove whether that intelligence is an actual deity. They do not necessarily believe that it is the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God: a bodiless spirit, single, infinite, immutable, loving, eternal, immortal, invisible, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. They can only hope to show that:

- One or more intelligent entities existed at the time that a particular design was implemented. However, the entity or entities do not necessarily exist now.
- It or they had powers well beyond that of normal humans -- but were not necessarily omnipotent.

In fact, the designers of life forms or other features of the universe that they are trying to detect might be any of the thousands of Gods and Goddesses worshiped by humans. A deity or deities may not be involved at all. Designs could have been created by some form of extraterrestrial beings who are centuries ahead of humans in knowledge.

Proponents of ID have a wide range of theological and philosophical beliefs. Persons with all of the following beliefs could embrace ID:

- A strict monotheist (e.g. a Jew or Muslim who believes in one God).
- A duotheist (e.g. a Wiccan or Zoroastrian who believes in two deities).
- A trinitarian (e.g. a Christian who believes in three divine persons within the unity of a single Godhead).
- A henotheist (e.g. a Hindu who believes in many Gods and Goddesses who are aspects of a single deity, Brahman).
- A polytheist (e.g. followers of many of the Aboriginal religions in the world who believe in many Gods and Goddess as discrete entities.)
- A Deist who believes that God created the universe, set it in motion, left, and has not been seen since.
- An Atheist, Agnostic, Humanist, or anyone else who might hold open the possibility of a very advanced species of intelligent beings existing in the universe."

***

Alan Studowski : Please be my girlfriend - "Hey, thanks for visiting my site. My name is Alan Studowski, the one and only, and i hope my heart can find someone to love. You will enjoy a look at my photos from all the exciting places i go in America. My life is very good because I have a lot to do. One thing I like to do is walk. I walk to many great places everyday. My favorite place to walk is McDonalds. There I can get a Big Mac and a coke. Once I went to three different McDonalds in the same day!! Another thing I like to do is have a girlfriend. I do not have a girlfriend now, but if you send me an e-mail telling me you want to be my girlfriend i will let you. Last time I had a girlfriend we were in love. I think it is so much fun to be in love. As a boyfriend I will love you. Sometimes it is hard to stop loving my girlfriend when we break up, but i do, then i love my new girlfriend. My new girlfriend could be you. Well I guess you should start having fun on my website. I have so much to look at, It wouldn't suprise me if you spent five days taking it all in. Even if you are a man I want you to email me and be my friend. Maybe if you have a sister she can be my girlfriend. Thank you for stopping by."

The Star Trek: The Next Generation Movie Plot Generator - "When watching a movie starring the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, you may think it's difficult to come up with such storylines. Well, that couldn't be further from the truth! It's simple to make a TNG movie! By filling in the blanks below, you can create your own TNG film script that is JUST AS GOOD as any TNG film that has already been released! Enjoy!"

Analysis of 12 Storeys (among other things) - "At San San’s household in 12 Storeys, San San has her first flashback of her late mother. The old woman says, in Cantonese, “Ah Ling and I worked...” Her words may contain a hidden reference to a lesbian relationship..."
Ah, I love literature. Oh, and I learnt that Mee Pok Man was about necrophilia. Whee.

Is Your Brain Really Necessary? - "John Lorber, a British neurologist, has studied many cases of hydrocephalus (water on the brain) and concluded that the loss of nearly all of the cerebral cortex (the brain's convoluted outer layer) does not necessarily lead to mental impairment. He cites the case of a student at Sheffield University, who has an IQ of 126 and won first-class honors in mathematics. Yet, this boy has virtually no brain; his cortex measures only a millimeter or so thick compared to the normal 4.5 centimeters."
This is from 1981, though.

TATTOO The Cup of Devils - "Throughout history the tattoo bears the mark of paganism, demonism, Baal worship, shamanism, mysticism, heathenism, cannibalism and just about every other pagan belief known. The tattoo has NEVER been associated with Bible Believing Christians. And whenever and wherever, in history Christianity appears – tattoos disappear. The only exception -- 20th century, lukewarm, carnal, disobedient, Laodicean Christians."
Hilarious stuff!

I have used Feedburner to enhance my RSS feed. The new URL is http://feeds.feedburner.com/Balderdash. RSS Autodiscovery tags have been updated.

Those of you (I know that there's at least one) using newsreaders to view my feed, please update the URL. Thank you.

Atheism: The Case Against God (Skeptic's Bookshelf)
George H. Smith
Prometheus Books, 1973

Atheism: The Case Against God has been called by some "the Bible of Atheism". Thumbing through this relatively short and readable volume, it is hard not to be delighted by the magnificent elegance of its prose, its deliciously wicked arguments and its pithy demolition of theism; it is no wonder that this volume is still in print even after 3 decades.

The book should really be called: "Atheism: The Case Against Gods", since it provides many general arguments that demonstrate the absurdity of theism, but since many people - most people in the USA, the audience of which this book was presumably aimed at originally - are trapped in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic mindset, naming this book as such was probably a wise marketing decision.

The author's thesis is that "if a person wishes to continue believing in a god, that is his prerogative, but he can no longer excuse his belief in the name of reason and moral necessity", and he amply demonstrates this. However, I feel that refutations of theism are best grounded in both schools of anti-theistic argumentation, so as to ring truer and more convincingly. To wit: the more philosophical school, which delves into the contradictions, paradoxes and absurdities of theism with respect to morals, ethics, metaphysics and epistemology (eg An omnibenevolent and omnipotent god cannot exist), and the more material school, which shows how there is no material basis in objective reality for theism (eg There was no town of Nazareth in the 1st Century AD). If one manages to undermine theism using one approach, theists may still flee to the other shore to attempt to seek refuge, but if both schools are employed simultaneously, the hopelessness of theism will be evident.

Of the two schools, the material one is more advanced in its demonstration of the absurdity of Christianity. Even the most hard core biblical literalist has to make concessions here and there, thereby already implicity undermining his fundamentalist theological framework (See the True Christian Church of Christ for more on this point). Which is why most serious Christian theology (as opposed to the drivel they churn out to rouse the masses) is focused on philosophical curiosities such as trans-world depravity, the veracity of faith, and the importance of the cosmological argument, since they know that the war on the other bank of the river is lost. But really, even if the cosmological and design arguments held any water, the most they'd commit one to would be deism. And even if one could show that an omnipotent, omnibenevolent god could exist, it would not demonstrate that one did exist. Which is why Ronald de Sousa's description of much of philosophical theology as "intellectual tennis without a net" (or indeed mine of it as "spiritual masturbation in a vacuum") rings so true.

Nonetheless, despite the deep pre-existing flaws of philosophical theology, at his self-declared mission, the author largely succeeds. After the obligatory clearing of the air on atheism and theism (just as my Evolution Professor has to spend the first week or two clearing the air on Evolution and Creationism), Smith shows that the theist is really a form of agnostic, in that he professes that he does not know about his god, and that some aspects of his god can never be known. He then shows that Christians do not really know much about their god, and employs metaphysical, epistemological, existential and causal arguments, often starting from first principles, to whittle away at the philosophical concept of an omnipotent, omnibenevolent monotheistic god until it is shown to be an unintelligible, untenable concept.

In the second part of the book, Smith shows how Faith and Reason are mutually exclusive concepts, how the former is an assault on the latter, and how knowledge cannot be gained through Faith. The concept of "misology" (the hate of wisdom and reason) is introduced, and is shown to permeate, at some level or other, Christian philosophy, theology and religion; after all, the very first myth in the Bible, the Creation Myth and the Fall of Man, is an instructive tale on the peril of wisdom and knowledge. Which in the end is why Reason and (Christian) Faith are fundamentally incompatible, and why apologetics and theology are fundamentally flawed, since they attempt to use Reason to defend the demolishing of Reason itself.

Following which, some words against Universal Skepticism (the stance that nothing can be known, also known as epistemological nihilism) are said, since Christian theologians sometimes offer the false dichotomy of the Christian god and Universal Skepticism, since "faith" is needed for one not to hew to the latter position, and so Christian faith is therefore not all that indefensible.

When Smith moves onto examining Revelation and Miracles, he begins to tread on ground more familiar to those versed with theistic and anti-theistic arguments. However, his employing of arguments similar to those used in the earlier part of the book seem suspect. He disavows miracles and the supernatural by saying that explaining the unknown with those concepts is not an explanation at all, but merely a fudge, to cover the real answer, which is really: I don't know or We can never know. This is a most valid point, for when theists purport to explain various phenomena and concepts by saying "God did it", they really are saying I don't know, and so aren't answering the question or adding any value with their answer. They might as well be honest like everyone else, and admit their ignorance. Be that as it may, something does not have to be explained to be possible - we may not be able to explain everything about Evolution and how it works, but that does not make it any less of a fact.

To end off the book, Smith rather hurriedly runs through why externally imposed, specifically, Christian ethics is a bad and self-destructive idea.

In the final analysis, though Smith puts forward marvelous, though at times overly-abstract, arguments, they are unlikely to be received as they should by those who need them the most; his arguments are mostly intellectual and do not resonate with people at a visceral level. More importantly, Faith is by definition believing in the improbable or impossible, and honest Christians admit that there is some level of absurdity in their faith.

Certum est, quia impossibile est (It is certain, because it is impossible) - Tertullian

Perhaps we fervent non-theists are guilty too, not of playing intellectual tennis without a net, but with no opponent.


Choice extracts from the above book will be posted at some time in the future :)

"The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race." - Don Marquis

***

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***

Some time on Saturday afternoon I got upgraded by Hotmail to a 250MB account. Finally!

***

"Here it is! You're on your own now. What kind of lifestyle do you want? Answer these few basic questions and we'll give you a Reality Check. Good luck..you're gonna need it.

Based on what you told us, you would need to make at least:
$6.00 per hour
$240.00 per week
to support your lifestyle.

Want to know what jobs you need to support your lifestyle? Here are a few jobs that fall into this pay scale:

Parking Lot attendants with a salary of about $6.81 a hour.
Maids,housemen with a salary of about $7.07 a hour.
Pressing machine operators with a salary of about $7.10 a hour."

(The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy)

Yay for frugality.

***

Vox Day, Theodore Beale and The Spiritual Side of Killing Palestinians

"The Dark Window introduces me to Vox Day (thanks!), Southern Baptist and Christian libertarian. However, as with a number of other Christian libertarians we’ve come across lately, the word “libertarian” is here being used in a rather odd way. As The Dark Window quotes him:

It's pretty clear to me that one of the most destructive forces in our society has been women's suffrage. Women consistently and reliably turn towards government as a solution for perceived problems, which creates more intractable problems, which then is used to justify more government intervention. This process is unlikely to stop until the entire edifice collapses of its own weight.

The answer, therefore, is to ban women from voting. Previously, Vox Day has outlined his Middle East peace plan:

The Israeli government must announce to the world a unilateral ceasefire, balanced by the deadly promise that for every Israeli soldier killed, 25 Palestinian police will die. For every civilian, 100 non-combatant Palestinian adults will be slain, and for every child, 1000 adults... In a fallen world, violence does solve some problems, and at times extreme violence is required."

From: Bartholomew's notes on religion

***

Someone on Bush's faith-based funds:

"So what's wrong with a little faith-based drug addiction program? I mean, Bush SAYS it works, so why wouldn't it? He wouldn't ever lie to the American People would he?

Religious Zeal has been attributed to curing people's cancer as well. I think we should do away with all cancer drugs and painful chemotherapy and just refer these "sick" people to local churches. Surely an exercise routine of bible banging and a diet of forced conversion will surely cure all of those people with Cancer, and if it doesn't, oh well, at least they won't be a drain on our soon-to-be-privatized Medicare system.

This guy is the most misguided idiot to ever hold the position of President."

***

(Since I wrote the following for Writing class, I might as well post it here, in an expanded form)

I would say the best argument against epistemological nihilism is this: if you cannot be sure of anything, how can you be sure of the argument that nothing is certain? Being certain that nothing is certain is logically impossible. So the universal skeptic has undermined his case from the start by laying claim to a concept that he has no right to.

Which can also be rewritten like so, with respect to Descartes' Meditations:

Descartes says that, since he cannot tell when he's sleeping, having thought in the past that he was awake when in actuality he wasn't, he cannot trust what his senses tell him. Going by the same logic, since in the past he has (presumably) reasoned imperfectly, should he not now distrust whatever conclusions he comes to by way of reason, and does this not lead to epistemological nihilism?

You can tell that the position of epistemological nihilism doesn't have much credence with me.

***

"The harm in dancing. Jan 1892

1. The conditions under which people generally dance - late hours, heated rooms, nervous excitement, are injurious to health.
2. A girl is frequently thrown into intimate association with one she would not and ought not choose as a companion.
3. The positions permitted in the dance are contrary to all modesty and would not be tolerated by pure girls and women were it not for the glare and music and general excitement.
4. The influence of the dance is to wean the mind from all serious studies and the heart from all sober purposes. The intellectual and scholarly men and women of our country are seldom dancers, and active praying Christians, never.

- Rev O W Willis, in Michigan Christian Advocate"

- The Malaysia Message, A Methodist Publication

***

DVD Rewinder

"Too many DVDs, and CDs and not enough time to rewind? Are your DVDs running a bit too slow? The DVD rewinder is the perfect solution! This novelty rewinder comes with the exclusive Centriptal Velocity Spindle providing the world’s fastest DVD rewind!

The DVD Rewinder is a great gift for the technical savvy, the couch potato, teens with too much time on their hands, and the gadget buff! Novelty for you or gag gift for a friend.

The DVD Rewinder has a great black and fluorescent green color scheme with high tech styling! The DVD Rewinder will spin discs backwards and plays a “rewind” sound. You can also record your own “rewind” sound which provides unending possibilities. For the tech hip, the DVD Rewinder also has an additional MP3 port and plays a separate “rewind” sound. Rewind all types of disc media DVDs, CDs, and Console Games. But not just novelty, the DVD Rewinder has utility. It has a built in compartment that holds a disc cleaner. This compartment can be used to hold the cleaner, loose couch change, tooth picks, keys or other small items. A truly unique product with a truly unique design!

The DVD Rewinder requires (1) 9V battery."

***

While looking up a reverse search referral, I found the following:

Zao-Yang Suppliers/Products/Manufacturers<Xiang-Fan<HuBei

"ZAOYANG JINNIU CHEMICAL FACTORY
Products:DICLOFENAC RESINATE**SODIUM CYANIDE**********
Address:ZAOGENG RD., ZAOYANG, HUBEI, CHINA" (Emphasis mine)

Zao geng road in Zaoyang. Interesting.

In other news, not unexpectedly, Dick Chan comes tops when you search "zaogeng". Even though more than half (at least) his stories are probably fake.

***

WEHT.net: The Online Compendium of 'What Ever Happened To' and 'Where Are They Now? - "Ever wonder what happened to: Eddie The Eagle? The chick who shot Andy Warhol? That 'Mikey' kid from the Life Cereal commercial? Well you've come to the right place, this is where we track the has-beens, the flash-in-the-pans and those pseudo-celebrities who were all too annoying during their 15 measly minutes."

48 reasons not to get a boob job. - "6) Though rare, it is not unknown for complications to be so severe that the breast ends up getting amputated. The chest wall can be injured. Your lungs and heart can be affected. You can end up dead." [Ed: Emphasis original]