Tag Archives: musings

Posted on 2010/11/17 17:26 pm by thepete



Actually, I do often wonder where my white privilege went. :(

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How I see the universe and how I (don't) see God (at all).

Posted on 2010/11/04 00:12 am by thepete

A week or two ago, I stumbled across a post somewhere on some blog that featured a TED video of a pastor/minister/priest/somethingorother giving a talk about how God can let terrible tragedy happen. 

I won’t go into my honest surprise at seeing God being the topic of a TED video.  I wasn’t about to watch the thing, but I did glance over a bit of what the guy who posted the video had to say.  As with all believers, I’m puzzled as to why people have this seemingly impossible-to-deny desire to believe in a supreme being.  The video was apparently about how silly it is that most believers agree that God is infinite and yet they’ve also decided that God is “this” or “that.”  Yes, it is silly.  But what about the part where you accept that God is infinite right along the idea that God can ever be comprehended or understood in the first place?  Why even bother trying to comprehend him if you know the human brain can never fully do it?  And since He is just so far above you, why do you even bother believing at all?  What’s the point?

I left some of that in a comment on the already commented upon post (most of the comments were from believers).  And I did get a response from the original poster explaining that we should try to understand God so we can understand existence, understand how we understand and understand how we relate to each other.

Being careful to only slightly stretch my own 3 Rules of Internet Arguing, I decided to leave one more comment.  Here it is:

I guess I just don’t see much to *understand*. I mean, I read the science, I understand how certain conditions lined up and allowed me to exist.  Understanding existence in this way tells me that life is incredibly fragile.  Seeing how lifeless the universe appears to be, suggests how incredibly special and unique we are.  It also tells me that it is we who bring meaning to the universe—that without us, existence would just be a bunch of planets, asteroids, stars and space dust.  Without us, no one would be able to attribute meaning to any of it.  So, that makes human life invaluable.

So, to me, when someone I know dies or gets cancer or stubs his toe, I understand this as the way the universe works.  I don’t really see a need to describe it in terms of God.  I don’t see evidence of God.  I actually see evidence of a lack of God.

But I’ll shut up now.  I know how useful it is for you believers to hear from a non-believer (not at all).

To me, there can’t really be meaning without anyone around the comprehend that meaning.  If meaning was so important to God, you’d think that He’d create a universe teaming with life forms—plenty of people to understand the meaning He has created.

Instead, we are the only ones.  We are the only ones who see the patterns.  We see star systems and galaxies and shapes and beauty.  We bring the meaning.  Not God.

We see the stunning mechanics of the universe, while the universe itself, sees nothing.

And that’s OK with me.

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YOU'VE GOT TO TELL 'EM! THE INTERNET IS PEOPLE!!

Posted on 2010/08/31 15:16 pm by thepete

From underpaidgenius (with my emphasis and my links—mouseover for commentary):

“The internet is made of people. People matter. This includes you. Stop trying to sell everything about yourself to everyone. Don’t just hammer away and repeat and talk at people—talk TO people. It’s organic. Make stuff for the internet that matters to you, even if it seems stupid. Do it because it’s good and feels important. Put up more cat pictures. Make more songs. Show your doodles. Give things away and take things that are free. Look at what other people are doing, not to compete, imitate, or compare … but because you enjoy looking at the things other people make. Don’t shove yourself into that tiny, airless box called a brand—tiny, airless boxes are for trinkets and dead people.”

—

Maureen Johnson Books » Blog Archive » MANIFESTO (

via steph

Wait, DON’T shove yourself into a brand?  Actually, that goes completely against human psychology—I spent most of my life pledging allegiance to brands—Coca-Cola, Star Trek, Chef Boyardee.  I know they’re full of shit, but it’s instinctual to become loyal to brands.  It has to do with relying on patterns that simplify our lives and provide security.  Sure, I don’t like Starbucks, but I know what I’ll get when I go in there.  Just doing what ever you feel like doing as an artist may sound good, but ultimately won’t help your stuff get seen since people won’t know what the hell to make of somebody who seems to be saying and doing something different every day.

This whole attitude essentially encourages us to be a scatterbrained mess.

I DON’T NEED ANY HELP WITH THAT, THANKS.

I mean, all this hippie shit is great, but what about feeding myself?  I can’t eat the warm fuzzy feeling I get from creating something or consuming something someone else has created.  Selling yourself is what keeps you alive and, in a country like ours with very little original production going on here, selling our intellectual property is what keeps our economy going.

Jesus, we’re screwed.

In the end, can’t we just agree to not take wicked advantage over each other?  It’s not charging for our content that’s bad it’s charging too much.  My goal is not to get rich. My goal is to tell stories that change the world—but I can’t do that if I’m starving to death.

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Politics, Religion, Glenn Beck and the Art of Not Telling the Truth (they're all connected)

Posted on 2010/08/28 19:29 pm by thepete

So, I generally try to stay away from even mentioning Glenn “I’m a Loser Baby” Beck, but thanks to his exceptionally disrespectful event today, there really is no point in not helping him with free publicity.  Along those lines, here’s a reblog from friendlyatheist:

Beck talks faith in rally coinciding with anniversary of King’s speech

In a speech Friday night, Beck said he feels like “God dropped a giant sandbag on my head. My role is to wake America up onto the backsliding of principles and values most importantly of God. We are a country of God.”

Usually, I don’t get to political in this blog. But the fact of the matter is that conservatism and theocracy go hand in hand. There is no doubt about it. The historical revisionism, the lies, the propaganda, and the exclusion from public and political life of those who do not share their religious delusions cannot go unchallenged. If there is a time to be outspoken in favor of reality, truth and fact it is now. It is most needed here.

Come out as atheists, donate to secular and skeptical organizations, go cast your vote against the theocrats. Do something. It is your own liberty to live and think freely that are at stake here.

In reason, and in hope…
-FA

But, FA, you’re political whether you want to be or not. Religion is a political issue whether you practice one or not.  Don’t forget one of the predominant reasons for people to come to America in the first place: to be free of oppression.  One type of oppression is religious.  Religious freedom is supposed to be guaranteed in the Constitution—it’s every politician’s job to protect your right to worship as you please (which, for many of us is: not at all).  So, in speaking out in favor of Atheism, you’re asserting your politics.  It’s OK, though.  Politics (the way they should be practiced) are good.  Alas, most folks think of politics as “the art of spinning the truth to get what you want from people” (silly politicians, that’s advertising).  What’s sad is that Beck’s followers are simply not cynical enough.

We atheists are already this cynical, because most of us have left a faith after realizing it was all made up.  Believers are just that: Believers. They’ll believe anything you tell them, assuming you also include some stuff they already believe, like Beck does.

I would mind it much less if what Beck was saying was, at least, historically accurate, but he spouts off his own version of history all the time.  People are being miseducated by Beck and that harms America, as a whole. 

Honestly, I had hoped Beck would come out today and re-enact the climax from the  “The Wave” and point out that they were doing just what so many Germans did in WWII.  Blindly follow one man’s leadership just because it felt good—so good they didn’t bother questioning him. 

But alas, that lesson is still left unlearned by his minions. 

So no one should worry about “being political”.  These days expressing your opinions on anything outside of popculture is being political because so many politicians seem to be interested in hacking away at our ability to think what we want while so many other politicians seem oblivious to our right to do just that—think freely.

There is no such thing as wrongthinking and America is not a country of God, it is a country of citizens with rights.

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"Without scientific progress the national health would deteriorate;" Interesting words from a man you've probably never heard of.

Posted on 2010/08/27 14:12 pm by thepete

Found this while looking for information (ANY INFORMATION) on Ponds and Fleischman*:

Without scientific progress the national health would deteriorate; without scientific progress we could not hope for improvement in our standard of living or for an increased number of jobs for our citizens; and without scientific progress we could not have maintained our liberties against tyranny.

— Vannevar Bush, presidential science adviser in Science: The Endless Frontier, 1945

via time.com

I’m sure I could write something huge about how unbridled capitalism/free marketeering actually stymies the progress Vannevar Bush said is so necessary—what with Apple, lauded as a hub of innovation, consistently hobbling their mobile products, seemingly as part of a plan to give us something else to buy next year.

Yeah, I could write something huge. ;)

Of course, Vannevar Bush was one of the minds behind the Manhattan Project and he also envisioned one of the earliest versions of the Internet.

And no, he’s not related to George W, George HW, or Prescott Bush—I looked hard for a connection, I really did but ironically only discovered a family connection of my own to one of his best friends.  Yep, a distant cousin of mine was involved in the bomb. :(  I would have so given him crap at the next family reunion… you know, if he was alive and if I went to family reunions.

*UPDATE: yeah, I figured out that the reason I couldn’t find anything on “Ponds and Fleischman” was because it’s actually “Pons and Fleischman” but when I Googled the first phrase, Google didn’t ask me if I meant “Pons and Fleishman”.  GOOGLEFAIL!

I ended up digging through old Time Magazine cover stories to find an article I remember reading back in 1989 to find out how B. Stanley Pons spelled his name.

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Damn… so very behind on my J-media caps posts. :( I’ve been watching loads of anime,

Posted on 2010/08/22 22:06 pm by thepete

Damn… so very behind on my J-media caps posts. :( I’ve been watching loads of anime, just haven’t had time to post the screengrabs. Will do soon!

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iPhone 3G iOS 4 woes being dealt with... by downgrading... but what next?

Posted on 2010/08/21 15:03 pm by thepete

After being tired of the sluggish crashiness of my 3G iPhone running iOS4, I downgraded to 3.1.2 today. Thanks, Apple, for finally adding so many basic features to your latest phone, but making the OS so bloaty it won’t run smoothly on the 3G iPhone :\

At least under my Jailbroken iPhone running OS 3.1.2, it’ll run reasonably well with all the features it should have come with in the first place.  Too bad some (paid!) apps have been updated to the point they won’t run on 3.1.2.  Luckily, there are sites like Hackulo.us that keep old versions around (a site I feel I am perfectly justified in using so long as I’m just trying out apps or finding old versions of apps that have been updated beyond my current phone’s ability—I’m lookin’ at YOU Joby Gorillacam!).

The next thing I’m pondering is what to do for my next cell phone.  Sure, I want to upgrade to something with more storage, but the question now has become, do I go with the iPhone 4 (the predictable route) or the Dell Streak, which seems to give me almost the exact form factor I’m looking for.

The pros of the Dell Streak:

1) It’s a tablet—5 inches is perfect for e-books and watching videos.

2) It’s still a phone, which means I wouldn’t have to carry this and a cell phone, like I used to do when I still hand my Kindle 2. (I don’t worry about the ludicrous suggestion of looking like a dork with a giant handset, since there’s this little device called a “Bluetooth headset” that’s been around for a while.)

3) Logitech makes a Bluetooth keyboard that would almost perfectly fits the Streak, making it an almost perfect replacement for my eee pc 4g netbook, which would then be another thing I wouldn’t have to carry around with me.

4) expandable/swapable storage: unlike the iPhone, the Streak has a miniSDHC card I can dump stuff on at my whim (no iTunes required!!)

5) It’s an Android device which means I can drag-and-drop and enjoy all of the other benefits of a mostly open system

Pros of the iPhone 4:

1) THAT GORGEOUS DISPLAY. I am pretty much mad about this display—it’s so impressive that it looks amazing even in photos and videos.

2) I’m a Mac guy and until I read about the Streak, I had pretty much given myself over to the mercy of iTunes (as much as I resisted for years), ready to sacrifice freedom for an easier life (much like a Christian critical of the Bible).  When you use Apple products the way His Steveness wants you to, they’re actually pretty awesome.  Of course, when you use them the way *I* actually want to, you ended up with all sorts of hell (how DARE I what to use my gadgets the way I want to!  Really!  Free will? AS IF!)

3) The World of Apple backing up the damn thing.  This is pretty important to me—when I have trouble with the Dell Streak, where do I go?  I’m sure there’s someplace I can go for help (aside from the ‘net, I mean) but with the iPhone I can just go to one of four Apple stores within a 30 minute subway ride from me.

4) the iPhone finally has all the features it should have had all along, great battery life (Engadget claimed their i4 lasted 38 hours of regular use on one charge), HD video, cut-n-paste, front facing cam, video conferencing, camera flash and—well, no 4G connectivity.  But hey, Apple’s got to give us a reason to buy the NEXT iPhone, too, right?  You don’t think they didn’t call it the “iPhone 4G” by accident, did you?

Cons of the Dell Streak:

1) Display is big, but not as gorgeous as the iPhone 4’s.

2) When/if I have trouble with it, no easy place to go for help/repair.

3) battery life is not as impressive as the iPhone 4—and when I’ll be using it for as much stuff as I’m planning (phone, e-reader, email, light browsing, word processor), it needs to have a good battery.  Granted, I can always bring an external charger or an actual replacement battery, but not having to shut down and swap out is nice.*

Cons of the iPhone 4:

1) Small screen—too small for browsing, really, or word processing, or reading.

2) iTunes. I’ve always hated it and always will.  Fine, Apple, don’t let us DnD OFF of the device, but just integrate access to dump things onto the device into Finder/Explorer.  Why do we need a whole separate app just for throwing a couple of extra tracks onto our Phone/iPods? But no DnD is actually a big deal to me—dragging and dropping may seem like something that isn’t that big of a deal, but while you’re waiting for your iPhone to sync (even though you’re adding one album or one video) is annoying as hell, when you’re already running late.

3) Closed system.  Even after jailbreaking the iPhone won’t do *everything* I want it to.  Close, but there will always be things that are just impossible to run in any practical way—like Flash or Android. ;)

So, it’s a pretty even fight, huh?

I’m not sure what to do since they’re the same cost.  I may choose neither since neither is exactly what I need (the Streak would be if the screen was higher rez and had a real “big boy” keyboard).

Which would you choose?

*UPDATE 20100822: I found a review of the Dell Streak that describes the battery life as being superb—apparently it will go a full day with regular use and could even last a weekend if you use it a little less.  Engadget had the iPhone 4 at 38 hours—but really, I’d just need the Streak to go 24 since it’s convenient to charge it every night.  Buy an extra battery for $40 from the Dell website and I’ll never worry again.  In short: that’s one less “con” for the Streak.

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Posted on 2010/08/17 14:11 pm by thepete



“Morality is doing what is right regardless of what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told regardless of what is right.”

(via shawnandthecity)

Excellently put and speaks to the very core of why I am an atheist and not in a political party.  Before you have an allegiance to someone else, you should have allegiance to your morals first.

So there. ;P

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Can we please BAN the use of relative dates? They seem entirely use-free to me.

Posted on 2010/08/15 11:33 am by thepete

You know what I mean, right?  It’s when, instead of a date/time-stamp on a blog post or article it says “3 hours ago” or worse “3 months ago”.  It’s useless in so many ways and I’ve never heard an argument for the use of relative dates.

“They’re perfect for people who don’t really care when something was posted!”

“Relative dating, for when specificity doesn’t matter!”

“Who wants a cold, in humanly precise date and time on an Internet post? Give me warm, human vagueness any day!”

I’ve tried really hard to come up with a good reason for relative dating to be better than absolute dating.

Isn’t it ridiculous that we even have a phrase for that?  “Absolute dating.”  Funny how that just refers to “putting the actual date down.”

Imagine if we tried to use relative dating on formal documents.  You sign your tax return “4 months ago.”

I guess you can avoid being late that way.

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Some females hit puberty as early as 7--is this a "canary in the mine shaft" kind of thing?

Posted on 2010/08/09 12:43 pm by thepete

“You can blame chemicals or even obesity..” from coalspeaker:

But either ways girls are developing breasts by age 7 or 8 and going through puberty a lot earlier in life..

In the past, I’ve read about how the number of females born goes up during troubled times. This makes sense from an evolutionary perspective as it only takes one male to impregnate many females.  During times of stability, the birthrate of males goes up.

What if females reaching puberty younger is an evolutionary tactic to defend against an, as yet, unseen instability with humanity?  What if humanity, itself, is failing and this is our genetically instinctive attempt to combat that process of failure?  Females hitting puberty earlier means they can get pregnant sooner in life.  Assuming menopause doesn’t hit earlier, as well, this allows them to extend their child-rearing years, thus giving humanity a better shot at survival.

Is humanity under attack from something that is causing it to fail?  I don’t think so.  I think the effects of humanity’s internal flaws are starting to be felt on a genetic level.

Too bad one of those internal flaws of humanity is an inability to recognize slowly boiling water.

Remember that story about the frog?

I’m not necessarily pointing at Global Warming, either.  We’re facing a lot of challenges that most of humanity is just to frightened to face.

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