folding update.

Team members
-------------
     Rank
(within team)   User      Score  WU
      1        phreadom   3884   19
      2        optical-i  1156   9
      3        skw4sh     825    5

yay! :D I'm in the lead still! :D

if you'd like to find out more, or join the team, please check out the standford Folding@Home website.

if you do decide to try it, if you'd like to join our team, the number is 44247.

also, something to keep in mind, running this will run your CPU at 100% as long as you're running it, UNLESS YOU CHANGE THE DEFAULT SETTING. you can set it to only use like 10% or something if you want. the reason I mention this, is because you probably rarely ever use 100% of your CPU's processing power... and doing so makes the CPU run hot. if you don't have the proper heatsink, fan and ventilation... you can cause the CPU to overheat etc.

I run mine at 100% on all 3 boxes, but I had 1 of them overheat and the other get close. I adjusted the ventilation after that. ;) *added fans* been peachy since then. running nice and cool. 2.2ghz, 1.33ghz and 300mhz all AMD chips.

anyone with more questions can feel free to message me etc. :)

(for the record, skw4sh wussied out. Optical-i started up again. poor yath is still waiting on his first Work Unit to finish. :'( poor guy is going to take like 6 weeks to finish 1 Work Unit on his pentium 200mhz)

cute debate on slashdot.

comments on "why smart people defend bad ideas"

you just KNOW that's going to involve a religious debate... and sure enough, it does.

interesting reading (at least for me).

(causality, thomas aquinas, occams razor, blah blah on and on...)

quotes and thoughts.

We are not loved by our friends for what we are;
rather, we are loved in spite of what we are.
-- Victor Hugo


reminds me of what one of my friends once said about me...
"to know him is to love him anyway."

a nagging thought

I figure that I'll try to get this onto "paper" and out of my head... (so it's going to be sloppy and haphazard... it's such a huge mesh of ideas that it's an ongoing process for me to learn more about different aspects and continually cross-reference, compare, analyze etc...

I've been thinking for awhile now about how ignorance, religion, power structures, law, socialist tendencies, true democracy etc... how they all fit together into todays society/societies.

for instance, what would happen if everyone actually knew as much as I'd like them to? if people stopped being religious idiots and were simply good people in a secular sense. would people be able to function without the "happiness in slavery" aspect of a controlled society? without having the police, laws, government etc? most people don't realize that we have a direct democracy... and that we have a lot of socialist tendencies in our government etc.

it makes me wonder when I see things like the Montana Freemen... and hear something in their manifesto that makes me say "hrm...".

although I think that the Ruby Ridge guy, and the Freemen were all a little off their rockers, they all did have some valid points as well. (and look where they are now)

it makes me wonder... is there anywhere on earth that you can go and be FREE? without having to pay taxes, follow someone elses rules and laws etc? what if you say "I just want to go live on this mountain and have nothing to do with you. I don't want to be a citizen, I don't want your federal ANYTHING. I want to grow my food, make a little money by selling and trading with my neighbors, and be left alone."

what do you think would happen to you?

what if everyone really dug into the foundations of our government... had the intellect to do it... if everyone stood up at the same time and said "our government is a corrupt shadow of what it was formed as and intended to be."

do you think we'd be able to do anything about it?

I think most people are happy being ignorant... happiness in slavery. they give up many rights and freedoms because it makes them feel safe. they have a keyhole view of what's really going on in this country and around the world, and they really don't care.

I just wonder sometimes which world is a better place REALLY...

our voting system... political parties... taxes and our governments usage of them...

I guess in the end it's a moot point... as statistically the vast majority of people just aren't smart enough to be able to really comprehend all that... and the vast majority are also simply apathetic. they generally get what they want and/or need. they like having structure and order in their lives... and while they might bitch from time to time, overall, they like it, want it and need it. it lets them feel safe.

I just wonder if the world, or more specifically this country at least, couldn't be a better place if we started back the way the founding fathers intended it again. re-evaluated all of this mess.

I think that ignorance and greed have simply destroyed this country. and in the same way I say that we deserved 9/11, we deserve the fate we're headed for. every great empire falls in the end.

IP law, copyright corruption, patent law, corporate law, etc.

the list goes on and on...

this country is fucked... and the most depressing thing to me is that statistically those of us with a real clue, are fucked, because we're just a small minority.

when the majority of people are fucking stupid... and the majority vote makes the rules...

yeah. it's fun living in a place where your life is controlled by people generally far less intelligent than you are. (which is, in case you forgot, 98% of the population in my case... actually I'd only include about 75% in there, just to be accurate. the other top 23% are at least generally intelligent, ranging up to my intelligence. have to remember the curve.)

it's a ceaseless stream of instances like "we just passed this STUPID FUCKING LAW to fuck up your life because we're too stupid to understand the ramifications." "but that's stupid for x, y and z!" "but we don't understand that, and there's more of us, so deal with it."

yay.

I love for instance laws from people who believe they have the (literal) god given right to impose THEIR biblical views on morality into other peoples private lives.

sodomy, adultery, oral sex, pornography, homosexuality...

in case you didn't know it, in most states, ANY sexual activity besides that of a husband and wife having sexual intercourse in the "missionary" position, is illegal.. EVEN IN THE PRIVACY OF YOUR OWN BEDROOM... and some even have laws beyond that.

your wife sucking your dick? ILLEGAL. doggy style? ILLEGAL. anal? REALLY ILLEGAL. threesome? ILLEGAL. (even though harems, polygamy and mistresses were all quite common in the bible, and homosexuality was common place and a social norm in biblical and post-biblical times. one of the many reasons leading to the burning of the libraries (temples etc) of Alexandria to destroy all this knowledge and enforce the word of the Christians etc...)

as my mother said "it's gods word, so we have the right to do what's best for those people... they don't know what's best for themselves."

uh oh.

Minnesota court takes dim view of encryption

I hate the implications of this. essentially anyone that chooses privacy is now considered a criminal? this has been brought up many times before: "if you've got nothing to hide, then what are you worried about?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy
that probably outlines the subject better than I could.

for the record, I think the guy did commit a crime. but I think that aside from that, the courts handling of the matter of him having PGP on his computer (aside from the fact that he didn't even use it) is terribly wrong.

choosing to use encryption in no way makes you a criminal.
the right to privacy isn't criminal.

the line of thought that choosing to exercise your right to privacy is proof of criminal intent is very dangerous indeed.

another way of putting it:
"guns are criminal because they can be used to commit crimes."
"knives are criminal because they can be used to commit crimes."
"filesharing programs are criminal because they can be used to commit crimes."
"cars are criminal because they can be used to commit crimes."
"water is criminal because it can be used to commit crimes."
"bricks are criminal because they can be used to commit crimes."
"computers are criminal because they can be used to commit crimes."

all of these things are legal things with valid uses. just because PEOPLE can use them as tools to commit a crime, doesn't make the tool criminal, it makes the CRIMINAL A CRIMINAL.

this kind of assosiation is generally made as an excuse to allow people to try to maintain control. police and government don't like the idea of not being able to know everything they want about you. they don't like the idea of you having REAL privacy... so they use things like this to try to demonize encryption etc in an attempt to have it outlawed, thereby maintaining their power structure.

this actually touches on quite a number of other topics, which I won't go in depth into here.. but things like the MPAA and/or RIAA calling "copyright infringement" "THEFT" in an attempt to justify their ridiculous actions, when that is NOT what it is... or the government bending the meaning of the right to bear arms to somehow mean simply the right to own a duck hunting gun, when it was meant to mean a cutting edge military grade automatic firearm etc... because of the threat that an armed populace could be to the government power structure. the government was never supposed to have a standing army... the people were meant to be the militia... every male from 17 to 45 was supposed to own and be proficient with a modern military class firearm in order to defend his country if need be while an army was raised. this has been downplayed, buried and whatnot ever since... the government has gone on to have a HUGE standing military and stripping the citizens right to bear arms beyond small arms and single shot or semi-automatic arms, generally for hunting or target shooting.

(more information here as well as other places)

control. maintaining the status quo.

to get a better frame of mind about this... I'd suggest studying what the founding fathers did during the rebellion against Britain... read things like the constitution, declaration of independence, the federalist papers etc.

our founding fathers were by todays definition, terrorists.

our country was founded on certain principles of freedom, liberty and neutrality towards it's people.

this is starting to segue into another post I had in mind... so I'll finish this one and move on to the next one as a separate post. (makes commenting easier etc)

more on eye color

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_color

essentially, by saying that people with blue eyes have underdeveloped (and therefor somehow defective) eyes, is about as intelligent as saying that white people are underdeveloped and therefor defective because we don't have as much melanin in our skin as black people.

if we further dally down this road of thought, we can come to the INFORMED conclusions that blue eyes and light skin are both the result of evolutionary adaptation to climates with less direct sunlight, and therefor less need for high levels of melanin in the skin. this allows for more absorption of Vitamin D from sunlight, whereas people with high levels of melanin can suffer from Vitamin D deficiency more easily.

both are simply the result of human evolution and are examples of humans adapting to their environments.

wow. getting the facts is really hard. *cough*

(there is a bit more to it, but that's the basics. spend a little time on wikipedia, it will do you good.)

eternal life?

http://www.geekinformed.com/content/view/229/2/

I don't get why it's so hard for people to understand this very simple concept:

IT'S A COPY. IT'S NOT YOU. YOU DIE AND THEN A COPY OF YOU THINKS IT'S YOU.

continuity. oddly enough, if you could split yourself in half, while simultaneously copying the other half of your self, all without losing consciousness... that is the only way I can actually having 2 of YOU... as this follows with the body's natural process of shedding and replacing cells in the body. however, the YOU that is the one perceiving the "copy", is still going to die. a part of the actual "you", still containing the unbroken stream of consciousness etc, will still exist...

heh. brainbenders. :F

I'm straying from the point.

point being, downloading your brain into a computer doesn't do SHIT for you, except POSSIBLY enable the duplication of the data in your brain. and I have a good feeling that even this is PAINFULLY ignorant of the nature of the chemical/neurobiological complexity of the brain, and is still thinking of memory and thought etc, as just 1's and 0's packed into your head.

I'm not saying that something remotely like this isn't possible... but even then, it's still just a copy... unless you can preserve the brain, and then rewire it to a new body perfectly. no matter how insistent the "new" you is that it is really you, it's only because from it's point of view, it feels that continuity because it has all of your memories, perceptions etc... it "is" you in that sense... but doh.... you're dead. :)

ok.. I feel like I have clay packed in my head now. time to go lay down and read.

(and it just occurred to me that this would possibly be a good topic for Ian to weigh in on)

(oh, and also, in case you missed it... this also applies to the teleporters in Star Trek, unless you somehow remain conscious while you're REDUCED TO YOUR ATOMIC CONSTITUENTS AND BEAMED ACROSS SPACE AND REASSEMBLED... *cough*)

who knows, maybe we'll discover some fundamental shift in our understanding of the universe and be able to teleport through wormholes and all kinds of good stuff. :P

YOU NEVAH KNOW!!!

beating a dead horse

http://www.snopes.com/politics/kerry/service.asp

for those of you out there ignorant enough to still believe the BULLSHIT about John Kerry... here is a good starting point on rectifying that.

I almost feel guilty bringing this up, but it's a bone of contention with me... after butting heads with my father over the topic... my father having been mainly a medic in Viet Nam, as well as demolitions, etc. (he was a sergeant of some sorts I believe?)

he told me that he hated John Kerry so much that he wouldn't vote for him if he was the last man on earth, or if it killed him etc... that he was a traitor to his country etc.

so, I went and did a lot of studying, came back a few weeks later and had a nice long talk with him about it... and in the end, he said "I guess I really can't argue with that. I hadn't thought of it that way."

to me it's just a matter of perseverence sometimes in getting someone to consider a different viewpoint... to take a look at the facts and reevaluate them etc. and getting my own father to reevaluate something he was so passionate about, and to give any credence at all to the totally opposite viewpoint... it was quite an accomplishment for me.

so I guess the reason I still beat this dead horse now, is that even though Kerry lost the election, there is still a lot to learn in relation to the stories behind the candidates... and a lot of misinformation that has been left to stand since then. I don't see any reason to not try to correct that misinformation... if only to illustrate to people that they've been duped... and to maybe teach them a bit about doing a little research of their own.

oddly enough, it echoes what Kerry himself was doing after Viet Nam.... it wasn't just that he was fighting against the governments lies about Nam and the lives that it was costing.... it was about making sure that the American people knew what the government had done, and trying to make sure it never happened again.

think about it.

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

for the record, I'm not a big Kerry fan, I simply thought he was a better candidate than Bush. I would have probably voted for Dean, given the chance. it started as a matter of simply trying to figure out the best candidate... the lesser of 2 evils so to speak... but ended up turning into a matter of fighting to get people to learn the TRUTH behind crap... hell, even PC got suckered by all the propaganda, lies and bullshit (redundant?)... and after I argued with him for like 3 hours after I found out how he voted, he said "why didn't you tell me this sooner?" and I said "BECAUSE I THOUGHT YOU KNEW BETTER!!". PC is rather Libertarian... blah blah

anyway... I just try to make sure people have the facts straight and aren't making any more choices since the elections based on the horribly flawed BULLSHIT that most people were totally suckers for during the elections.

for the love of god...

Would you Adam 'n' Eve it ... (dinosaurs in Eden)

...

...

just read it. I really don't have anything else to say right now.

(thanks proc for the link!)

:-/

Lisa...

now, as long as we're both aware of Freedom of Expression... and that even if you get all offended and steam starts coming out of your ears, technically, in a truly free society, you shouldn't be able to censor that person.

now as far as calling it ART... that's entirely subjective. is art a form of personal expression? is art only things that are beautiful? how do you quantify beautiful? where do you draw the line between what is aesthetically pleasing to you, or to someone else? etc.

unfortunately, the dictionary seems to take the view that art has to be beautiful or aesthetically pleasing. I was always of the impression that it was a form of personal expression. if I wanted to paint what was on my mind... (and I did chalk "art" when I was younger, among many other things... including pieces being displayed in an art museum etc.) what if what was on my mind was darkness and hate and anger and despair... and I let that flow through my hands and onto canvas and left something terrible... ?? then it's not art? even if 1 other person could look at that and see the beauty in it? the window into a persons soul?

where do you draw the line and make the decision for what someone can and cannot call art, based on YOUR perception of it and feelings towards it? if it's not hurting you, robbing you, or depriving you of some inalienable right or something... I don't see what the issue is. you're free to disagree and not call it art... but you really can't say that someone else can't. to THEM it very well could be art.

just my 2 cents I guess. I'm sure this could be argued in circles all day. and I know that I could argue "both" sides, and a number of tangents. but I think in the end, I covered the main gist hopefully.

Piss Christ

expression... might even be "beautiful" to someone... beauty being in the eye of the beholder after all. ;)

it's all relative... it's all subjective.

I think a more fruitful discussion here would be to focus more on the fact of simply offending other people... not about the "art or not art" aspect of it.

and I think I already covered that too. freedom of speech and of expression. I have no pity for people so grievously offended by the equivalent of pissing on a picture of hansel and gretel standing outside the gingerbread house.

want something to really get upset about? consider things like how upset you'd be if someone murdered your parents... or raped your sibling... REAL LIFE. people need to stop getting their panties in a bunch over PIECES OF FUCKING PAPER or LITTLE PLASTIC STATUES.

I honestly wish they'd all just kill each other off and leave those of us with (un)common sense to refill the gene pool.

god damnit

ok... here is an example of the reason I paid for the results on that IQ test. there were a few that I -knew- I would likely get wrong, not for lack of my own mental ability, but for lack of either accuracy or clarity on the part of the test.

for example, here is question #4, which the test stated that I got wrong.


(the green arrow being my answer, the red check being the "correct" answer)

now to clarify, a square is by defintion a rectangle, but a rectangle is by defintion NOT a square.

square: n.
1. A plane figure having four equal sides.
2. Something having an equal-sided rectangular form: a square of cloth.

rec·tan·gle: n.
A four-sided plane figure with four right angles.

now, given the above definitions, we can see that the colored portions of the 2 figures are NOT squares, but are actually rectangles. they are not even CLOSE to being squares. HOWEVER, the 4 corner shapes on the other hand ARE squares.

so, the correct answer here would obviously be "neither colored shape is actually a square, so none of the possible given answers is correct.".

but... given what I had to work with, and allowing for the fact that it is a SOLID fact that the colored rectangles are NOT squares, I had to move down the line of reasoning to the related shapes, these being the SQUARES at the 4 corners of the associated colored shapes. now, while this doesn't exactly fit the phrasing of the question, neither do the given answers fit the facts.

so I had 2 options. either dumb myself down to allow for the fact that they probably made the mistake of incorrectly calling 2 rectangles "squares", or I actually use my brain to follow a train of logic and make the best guess in what would, in an abstract reasoning sense, be a trick question/answer.

obviously I was shooting for a higher score, so I chose the more accurate per definition answer... and got it wrong.

now, while I wasn't entirely correct, being fully correct is perfectly impossible, given the fundamental error of the question.

yeah. sometimes I think too much. which is funny, given that this is an IQ test.

oh well, like Stephen said... "what, being a genius isn't good enough for you? you need to be a super genius?"

really, I just wanted to get to the bottom of it. :)

---------

for the record, the only question I got wrong as a result of me just mentally screwing up, was the question about which would be cheaper, the ham or the beef. my mistake was in not subtracting 40% from the price, but in calculating 40% of the price and using that number. (divide by 10 to get 10%, being 25 cents, multiply by 4 to get 40% = $1, which I should have then subtracted from $2.50 to get $1.50, which would have made the ham $0.50 more than the cost of the beef while both were on sale.) one of those where I smacked my forehead after the fact, but that one was my own fault for an oversight.

the other 3 (besides the above "squares" one) that I got wrong were the stapler, which I misjudged the width of the staples and chose the second one... the chairs and table, where I figured that the size of the table in relation to the chairs wasn't specified, and therefor either both could fit, or just the last one, or none... depending on the unspecified relative scale. another I should have dumbed down for I guess. and finally, the peanut and the paper. again, another unspecified one. I could simply fold the paper into a paper airplane and drop it... it's wind resistance at that point relative to weight would be less than the peanut and therefor it would fall faster. *sigh* again, I should have just picked the obvious answer.

sometimes overthinking things isn't the best route.

yay for Occam's Razor.

and a counterpoint, lest you think I'm being too biased.

http://godsfriends.org/Vol13/No1/allah-akbar.html

when trying to really understand something in depth, you should learn as much as you can about all the possible facets of a situation, and then take an informed, intelligent and holistic approach to that path towards understanding.

of course, this also takes skepticism, critical thinking skills etc... but hopefully yu get the idea.

I'm not saying that all muslims, or all christians, or all of any religion are bad people... in fact, I'd say that probably the majority, in a sense, are good people. or even "very good".

the problem lies in the fact that the underlying loss of cognitive ability, objective reasoning and critical thinking skills... that ability for rational thought... it is a symptom of religious belief... it is requisite for that belief, and is bolstered in turn by that belief... it is that lack of rationality that becomes the most dangerous symptom of religion... the lack of objectivity inherent in that belief leads to things like bigotry, discrimination, repression... and when those beliefs start being passed into law because that mindset becomes so widespread... THAT is where those beliefs start doing a much more widespread and deeprooted damage to society as a whole.

let's see if this very simple description of something is too hard to follow.

the judeochristian and muslim conflicts over the past several centuries including the crusades have led to a deep rooted animosity between these "2" religions.

the united states is by far the single largest ally and supporter of Israel, at the cost of $15,000,000.00 PER DAY of United States tax payer dollars.

the United States in the mid to late 1950's CHANGED our National Motto to "In God We Trust" (which as far as I know doesn't fully replace the original) as well as added "under god" to the Pledge of Allegiance and added "In God We Trust" to all of our paper currency. (in violation of separation of church and state no less... a very hotly debated topic in it's own right that we won't get into here.)

this centuries old, deep rooted animosity towards judeochristianity held by a portion of the muslim world now falls upon the United States for a three fold reason.

1) #1 backer and ally of their greatest enemy, Israel.
2) United States foreign policy, military operations and covert operations resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Arab men, women and children over the past several decades.
3) the United States taking a concerted stand as a christian nation, echoing it's crusading christian forebearers, which in light of point #1 and point #2, only make this third point more poignant.


now hopefully that isn't too hard to understand. if you wish, you should read about the war crimes trials against israel and note who the dissenting vote(s) is(are). research the amount of money we REALLY spend in Israel. (a $3,500,000,000.00 per year "loan" that is quietly written off every year, so that we don't have to state it as actual outright funding, brand new military equipment being "sold" to Israel at discounts over 80%... lots of interesting things going on.)
read about the history and facts behind the whole "in god we trust" and "under god" debacles. study about the reasons why separation of church and state is so important... something I've covered in several previous posts, some at great length with references.

hell, just go study... go dig. go gather information... and remember to keep digging for different sides of the story... try to get a solid and in-depth over-all view of the situation and see if you gain a much deeper understanding of what's going on.

generally when you start "investigating" something like this, you might end up learning a lot more in the process... ie; study the number of international assassinations that the CIA has perpetrated in the past 60 years... the number of dictators we have replaced democratically elected leaders with for our own monetary or political gain... or the truth behind Bush's military and past political record... or for that matter John Kerry's (I read his military records and watched the actual video of his speech before the congressional committee). which in turn might lead you to learn about the truth behind the Viet Nam "war" (it was actually a Police Action, NOT a war.) and the Gulf of Tonkin.


I guess, now that I've gone on at a bit more length than I intended, in closing I should say that I have hopefully provided you with a well illustrated example of at least a small part of a train of thought and investigation which leads me, in part, to the kind of knowledge and understanding that I have of the world around me.

I am CONSTANTLY researching and investigating and thinking about the world around me, on such a vast variety of topics that I can't really list them all here. essentially about almost everything there is in the world around me... I seek to have at least a basic understanding of it all, so as to better facilitate a truly knowledgeable, intelligent and holistic view of the world.

and an EXCELLENT follow-up.

http://edition.cnn.com...05/21/saddam.photos/

----

President Bush was asked Friday whether photos of Saddam -- as well as the now-retracted Newsweek story about military interrogators flushing a Quran down a toilet -- serve to inspire opposition in the Muslim world.

He said, "I don't think a photo inspires murderers. I think they're inspired by an ideology that is so barbaric and backwards that it's hard for many in the Western world to comprehend how they think."

----

this of course, ignores the ties that the muslim beliefs have to the christian idiocy here domestically... but hey, it's a step in the right direction that someone finally realizes that the photos are not the problem... the idiots murdering people based on a primitive superstition and ideology is the problem. follow the problem to it's root. quit focusing on the symptoms of the symptoms.

todays "the idiocy that is a symptom of religion is the cause of most of the worlds problems" post.

http://edition.cnn.com...05/20/britain.protest/

and I quote:
'Martin Mumbanga told CNN: "The soldier picked up the Quran and threw it on the floor."

Holding their Qurans high, they called for death and mayhem, praising the destruction of New York's twin towers on September 11, 2001, and saying the White House is next.

Before they broke up, the protesters joined in meditation, and then they all prayed.'

...

OH MY GOD!#%!#%$!#% NO!!!!!! OH MY GOD!!! WE HAVE TO KILL SCORES OF OUR OWN PEOPLE AND CALL FOR THE DEATH OF GEORGE BUSH AND TONY BLAIR, THE NUCLEAR BOMBING OF THE WHITE HOUSE AND THE PENTAGON AND TOTAL JIHAD BECAUSE A BOOK GOT THROWN ON THE FLOOR!!! OH MY GOD!!!!!

read the article. I think it speaks for itself.

(and for the record, I'm aware of a hell of a lot of back story on this situation, but at it's root is the horrible politics of the US, not just the Bush administration, and also of the religious conflicts that have been going on for centuries. (un)fortunately, my point still stands.)

"some notes for lisa" or "A RANT FOR THE MASSES".

stopped by her blog... saw a few things I felt the need to comment on.

as for the whole thing about not saying anything about anyone elses beliefs because they're all ok and don't do me any harm and are none of my business.

*sigh* lisa.. lisa... I could have sworn I'd covered that on here enough times for you to see that your view is WAY overly simplistic and simply wrong. :-/

if someone wants to believe something in their own home... or simply say something about it... fine. when suddenly they make their own beliefs into law and I'm suddenly a criminal for not agreeing with them, or by not abiding by their ideas of morality etc... even though I'm not harming anyone... then their ignorant beliefs or whatever beliefs they are, have suddenly done harm. they have infringed upon my life.. put my freedoms in danger etc. it's very naive to think that all ideas are perfectly fine in ANY CONTEXT.

it's like saying that if I believe in eugenics, that's perfectly fine. and then when I get that passed into law and suddenly it's illegal for you to have children... then wouldn't that start to become an issue?

there's a reason I make such a big deal about stupid beliefs... because when allowed to run rampant without correction or debate, shit like that happens. foolish beliefs become the beliefs of the masses and end up as law... and then the few who know better, or choose to believe differently, are suddenly criminals in a system where they've committed no crime.

hopefully you can distill the point I'm trying to make from that.

oh.. and as for the Qu'ran being flushed... what makes you think it DIDN'T? there have been repeated reports of this happening for a long time now... this was simply the first time someone in the government backed it up. and it was only after a LOT of pressure directly from Bush and the media etc that Newsweek finally backed down and retracted it. it would (again) be naive to take it quite so lightly without questioning not only exactly what happened within the government, and with the pressure applied by them, to make that story crumble. also, let's not forget the whole issue about exactly what about flushing a few pieces of paper down a toilet justifies the deaths of over a dozen people and massive riots and hundreds of wounded people?

ignorance based on religion.

if they weren't so wrapped up in such STUPID ideas... NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED!!!!

how many times do I have to point to the obvious!?

you get so caught up in the symptoms... and trying to lay blame with Newsweek, or with the soldier who supposedly flushed the pages... but WHAT ABOUT THE IDIOTS WILLING TO KILL PEOPLE OVER PIECES OF PAPER?

"I am so offended that you have flushed a piece of paper from a book I can simply replace by walking to the nearest religious book store, that I am going to start murdering people in a fit of rage."

HELLO. WELCOME TO THE POST GUTENBERG ERA. HELLO. WELCOME TO THE MODERN WORLD. HELLO. WELCOME TO REALITY.

..........................

*deep breath*

I remember when I was younger, and Sinead O'Connor tore up a picture of the pope on SNL... I was watching that. it was the year after I graduated high school.

http://simr02.si.ehu.es/FileRoom/documents/Cases/391sinead.html

I respect a person like her who has the guts to stand up and speak out. who has the guts to not be politically correct... to not be cowed... to say what so desperately needs to be said.

I do NOT respect the people who bend to the media... who say that they're "outraged" and "appalled" by things like seeing Janet Jacksons breast on TV for a few seconds. things like that are simply so far beyond ridiculous that it's almost incomprehensible to me. it's actually a fact that many of these "outraged" people are simply focus groups of extremist christians, mostly from a single organization, flooding the phonelines to raise a stink.

most people simply don't give a shit... and most of the ones that do, only do because everyone else seems to.

I hate always feeling like I'm one of the only people to stand up and say "HEY! YOU'RE BEING STUPID!".

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

anyway... as for the holocaust... generally I agree with you. the only point I try to remind people of, is that the jews were not the only people persecuted. gays, political dissidents and essentially any other people that were deemed unwanted were also thrown into the concentration camps. I'm no fan of holocaust revisionist history, but I like to remind people that just because jews are the only ones raising a huge fuss about the holocaust, they were not the only ones targeted.

(and the "holocaust" wasn't the only massive persecution and genocide of a people in history either. it's, AGAIN, just the one that gets made the biggest deal of. there have been many.)

and I do think that the youth of today lacks respect, lacks focus, lacks a lot of things. with the frenetic pace of bullshit being flashed before them all the time like strobe lights... nothing but marketing non stop and stupid crap... and the level of violence and whatnot on tv... people just really don't care anymore. they'd rather get drunk, have sex, listen to shitty rap music, try to dress like G's and think that they're the shit.

I used to consider going into teaching... but when I look at the youth of today wherever I go... what I see disgusts me. I would lose my job long before I made any real difference.

anyway... I guess to sum it up, I just get tired of hearing about it honestly. we know it happened, we're not forgetting. I'M JUST SICK OF HEARING ABOUT IT!! it was over 60 years ago! what the fuck do you want me to do about it now!?!? why don't we raise memorials all over the fucking globe for the victims of the Nipponese in Nanjing China... or of the millions killed by Stalin in Russia?

I guess that's really what irritates me the most... them sitting there constantly making such a huge deal about it...
oh, and for the record, using the words "good" and "evil" is STUPID.

STUPID. STUPID. STUPID. STUPID. STUPID.

FUCKING STUPID!!!!!

clear? "good" and "evil" are arbitrary concepts invented by man and used in religion for the ignorant and simple minded. they are used in modern day to evoke the same emotions and justify political actions and propaganda... it's like saying that Osama Bin Laden is EVIL. how fucking stupid is that!?!?

Osama Bin Laden has hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people who consider him a hero who is fighting for their rights. who is fighting for the good of a repressed people... who is avenging the Arab nations against the United States for the tens of thousands of women and children that we've killed directly or indirectly in the middle east through our meddling in foreign affairs... both covertly and openly.

calling him evil is as good as saying "I'm either a downright liar who is trying to manipulate you, or I'm a total fucking idiot."

using words like that is a key sign that you should stop and really think about why that person would use a word like that. make references to some vague "eeeevil".

Hitler was not EVIL... he was a misguided and angry man who used his charisma and firm belief in christianity and nationalistic pride to manipulate a country into following him blindly because they believed it was the right thing to do. they believed he would raise them back up from the dregs of post world war I... that he would make them strong and respected in the world... he brainwashed their youth and he crushed his opposition. that doesn't make him EVIL... and to use that word is simplistic and naive.

you should learn and understand WHY a person does something... understand all the nuances... how different people perceive his actions in different ways... how he could come to power... how he could do the things he did and why people would follow him in light of all those things... THAT is how you gain a REAL understanding of the world... to do any less... to simply peg him as EVIL and not really try to understand the whole matter... that is a disservice not only to yourself, but to everyone else... because that kind of ignorant and simplistic view of what someone like him did.... is what allows it to happen again.... and again... and again... and again.

people need to really dig into a subject... look at it from all angles... stop trying to peg things in childish terms like "good" and "evil"... as though everything is black and white... "the good guys" and "the bad guys"...

start understanding that the world is FAR FAR FAR from being so childishly simple and then you'll really be getting somewhere.

END RANT.

make your own decision.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050530&c=1&s=mcgarvey

The Phantom of the Opera

just watched the new movie. I really enjoyed it, partially I think because of how closely it sticks to the broadway musical. I have the 2cd broadway cast cd set, and am very familiar with it... so while it was really fun to watch the movie (and because Christine is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL and has a voice to match), I was so used to the specific voices, words and notes, that the slight variations in the movie threw me a little bit.

but overall... go watch the trailer on the website, and if you're a fan of the musical, you really should watch the movie. :D

prompted by koden.

yeah... Sean got rather persistent in questioning me yesterday about why I constantly bitch about religion.

today on CNN.com gave several examples of why.

edition.cnn.com...05/11/uk.abuse.reut/
edition.cnn.com...05/11/afghan.protest/

and one of the morons responsible for spreading this type of idiocy...

edition.cnn.com...05/11/vatican.pope.satan.reut/

now come on people... how hard is it to see the kind of blatant ignorance involved here? when you start believing in all these supernatural forces and salvation and all that bullshit... people suffer.

the koran/quran is JUST A FUCKING BOOK... and people are being killed because someone wrecked a copy of a fucking book. and as for the little girl... she didn't fucking do ANYTHING! but because her aunt is a religious wacko.. and the bible itself says "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus 22:18), hell, she's justified in abusing this little girl to the point of seriously considering murdering her even.

now do you think that if these people knew that witchcraft in that sense was BULLSHIT, and that the koran/quran was just a fucking book, just like the bible... that people would be being killed, tortured and seriously injured en masse?

*sigh*

THINK ABOUT IT PEOPLE. SERIOUSLY.

speaks for itself

Folding@HOME

http://folding.stanford.edu/

(check out Protein Folding on wikipedia for more information)

I decided to start helping this project out today. formed team "phreadom", #44247 if you'd like to help out our team.

so far I think it's myself, josh (yath) and josh (the mormon). proc insists on helping out arsfoodcourt (the ars technica boys I guess) Team Eggroll. :-/ TRAITOR! ;)

so far, I'm running a client on this machine (2.2ghz/2gb ram) and on my webserver (1.33ghz/768mb ram). (both AMD Athlons) crunching away...

I downloaded the latest Slackware-current (linux) to install on here... figure that way I can at least compare the results on this box fairly against those from the webserver (also running Slackware linux) and see what kind of performance discrepancy I'm getting... as right now it appears that the webserver is kind of kicking this boxes ass, which doesn't make sense unless either the work unit is really that drastically different in it's computations (folding 2 different proteins) or that windows is simply sucking a lot of the CPU with stupid crap (a distinct possibility).

I have another 300mhz box just sitting here... but need a bigger hard drive for it and haven't really felt like swapping it's 2gb with the 10gb that I for some STUPID reason put in the OpenBSD router, which does nothing but sit there with a basic install sorting packets all day. :P

Graphical Windows Client:

Command Line Clients for Linux (left) and Windows (right):