George Carlin 1937-2008

Today is a sad day for the world. George Carlin died. He was a comedian, analyzer of world problems and a cultural icon. He stood for more than just a laugh, he stood for freedom of speech and the end of stupidity (although the latter would leave him without material).

He wrote 3 books, has 22 comedy albums, 4 Grammy awards, and countless comedy events. He even had the distinction of hosting the very first episode of SNL.

Sleepless

So, it is past 2 am....and I am still awake. It is so hard to fall asleep with so much on my mind.

It seems like I am having some sort of uneasiness about my future. I love science, I love studying science, but I hate the lifestyle of a scientist. I just don't understand the long hours, the low pay, and the huge amount of commitment of education and time. I am tired of having to decide between science and having a social life (with the social life always losing). Where is the balance? Why can't we have the best of both worlds? What happened to old-school science, the kind of science that you did in your free time for the fun of it? Maybe the problem is making a career out of something that I love, taking all of the fun out of it.

Also in my life, my grandfather died on Thursday. The funeral is this Thursday. The family is pretty broken up about it, and I have been the stable 'rock' member of the family. It is unfortunate, he was an awesome man and the stories have gone with him.

It looks like I am not going to sleep tonight, I will be on the road driving my sister to LA in less than 6 hours.

HOLY SHIT!!!

I don't know what to say....

World of World of Warcraft

'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'

European Union

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU rather than German which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty’s Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5 year phase-in plan that would be known as “Euro-English”.

In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of the”k”. This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”. This will make words like “fotograf” 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be ekspekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent “e”s in the language is disgraseful, and they should go away.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v”. During ze fifz year, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru!

The Pagan origins of the Christian Myth

[Before] Dionysis turned water to wine.
[After] Jesus turned water into wine.

[Before] Vespatian healed a blind man.
[After] Jesus healed a blind man.

[Before] The good go to the Elysian Fields, the bad to Hades.
[After] The good go to Heaven, the bad to Hell.

[Before] Romulus was the son of God, born of a virgin.{There are at least 4 others like this}
[After] Jesus was the son of God, born of a virgin.

[Before] Every group (Egyptians, Minoans, Spartans, Arians, etc) gets their holy laws from "god."
[After] Christians get their holy laws from "god."

[Before] The Roman god Liber had his flesh eaten by his followers.
[After] Jesus had his flesh eaten by his followers.

[Before] Glycon was the son of the God Apollo, who:
... came to Earth through a miraculous birth,
... was the Earthly manifestation of divinity,
... came to earth in fulfillment of divine prophecy,
... gave his chief believer the power of prophecy,
... gave believers the power to speak in tongues,
... performed miracles,
... healed the sick,
... raised the dead.
[After] Same as above except cross out Glycon/Apollo and replace with Jesus/God.



You see....Christians are not special, they follow the same myths that have been around for thousands of years. I get tired of hearing this 'god is special/jesus is our savior/jesus loves you/the bible is the word of god/REPENT!' crap over and over again. Religion is just a pair of mental shackles to keep people in their place, to keep them sedated. Study after study has shown that religion and intelligence are correlated (with an increase in intelligence = decrease in religion). [Keep in mind that IQ is only one measure of intelligence, but similar studies have seen the same thing in GPA, ACE, SAT, college education, income, and status in their field of work.]

The greatest threat to religion is reason.

Brain Drain

So I have been reading on the brain drain in the central valley. Link: Valley Notebook

It is quite sad just how pronounced it is. In the San Joaquin Valley only 14% of people over 25 have at least a bachelor's degree compared to the rest of the state of California at 28%.

So what does the San Joaquin Valley have to offer, Fresno in particular (since it is the 'big city'):
~~Well, it is in the middle of the state. Four hours to LA, four hours to Sac and San Fran. Two hours to the ocean, two hours to the mountains. In the middle of everything. The problem with this is that you have to go somewhere else to do something. Why should you be in the middle of everything when you can pick one thing that will have most of what you want anyways? With gas at $4.50 a gallon, who is going to drive that far?
~~The housing is the cheapest in the state. This is a positive, especially if you want to own a house. However, who wants to own a house that has nothing of value around it? Do we have lots of culture? No. Do we have major universities? No. Do we have a good public transportation system? No. Is there a thriving job market to support a family on? No. Then what is the point of owning a house, if there is nothing of value around it? It is like having a 3 story mansion, but it is located in the middle of the city dump. Pointless.
~~Lower crime rate? Not exactly. Both Fresno and Kern counties had a similar or higher rate of crime per 100k people than Los Angeles in all categories (2005). Where is the incentive to stay? Why not pick a county like Orange, Santa Clara, or Santa Barbara to raise your kids? They have lower crime rates, more cultural and job opportunities, and major universities nearby.

So how do we keep people here? How do we bring people in? How do we stop the tide of people leaving?

My fish has eaten your fish?

This is utter bullshit. It seems that the Discovery Institute has released another psuedo-science paper. It never ends with them does it?

Anyways, a quick summary of the paper. They took protein structures and compared them to Han (Chinese) characters with a computer program. That is it, that is the whole paper. They couldn't even account for 3D folding, they changed the topology of the proteins to make them fit the characters. An example of their bullshit work is below. At least there is an upside, they were able to write out (in 'Chinese') "My fish has eaten your fish" [the image below is not it] using proteins.


What is wrong with these people?!? Why is this ignorance allowed to continue?

Techno?

This is the reason why I listen to rock and metal...it has purpose. First of all, who buys techno? Second of all, who listens to techno enough to want to buy it? Thirdly, who listens to techno?

Spoon Genetics

Genius, pure genius. This shows the dangers of genetically modified utensils. Lets just stick with our GM crops and we should be fine. For those non-science people who are scared....utensils do not reproduce, so you are safe.

Slurpee goodness

So I had my first slurpee in about a year....which means that summer is officially here. No one can resist the perfection that is slurpee. It is nice and cold, and makes your tongue the color of happiness. Today I had the razberry flavor, next time I am going for the classic coke unless the banana flavor comes back. :-)

House sitting

So I have now been house sitting for a week. I must say that it is quite boring here as it is far too quiet. There is no one to talk to as well. I am kind of getting a feeling for what it is going to be like living completely on my own with no roommates. I am not sure that I like it, it is just too lonely.

Maybe when I have my own place, I will have to get a pet that loves me back...the gecko is not into cuddling, and the plants are not exactly sane friends.

Well, five more weeks of house sitting....perhaps it will grow on me.