"Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning." - Bill Gates

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On VR3: The Coils of Hate

"Life in the decadent city of Godorno is not easy on the Judain minority. A shrewd people of mystics and merchants, they are often accused of usury and witchcraft and anything else that happens to be amiss. Now the ruler has declared them outlaws and mobs immediately form to go about waving pitchforks and smashing shop windows. The Judain, huddling in their underground congregations, just want to go and find the Promised Land where the Chosen People can live under the one true God. I have searched this premise long and hard for real-world parallels, but nothing seems to
leap out."


On repairing wet gadgets:

"Vronko relates an unusual story in which his cell phone was on his lap during his drive home. When he got out of his car, the phone fell onto the driveway and that night was covered by 12 inches of snow. He didn't find the handheld until spring, two months later.

When he found the phone, he didn't have time to work on it, so he threw it into a freezer for another two months.

Once he found the time, Vronko cleaned out the phone with a solvent and made sure it was thoroughly dry. As a result, the phone worked just fine.

"Certain electronics don't like freezing temperatures," Vronko notes, so he doesn't recommend this approach for everything. "But, in this case, the cold kept the delicate parts from oxidizing."


"I think Mas Selamat was abducted by aliens. This is a giant conspiracy hatched by the CIA and FBI, in conjunction with the Vatican and the Illuminati.

They landed a UFO at the detention center and used mind controlling devices to wipe off the memories of the guards, who are really grand masters of the Knights Templar in disguise. The aliens then flew him to a top secret underground facility in Area 51 to be interrogated by a team of vampires and werewolves.

And do you know why they did this? Because Mas Selamat is The One --- that's right, he is Elvis Presley --- the sole descendant of the Holy Grail bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene.

I fear for his fate. If they do not get what they want from him, I am afraid they will get the Abominable Snowman to feed him to the Loch Ness monster."