Elections, Problems, and other rantings

Honestly, at this point I am tired of the elections. I follow the elections quite closely as a matter of principle, but the media is getting ridiculous. I could safely say that 90% of what they report is utter bullshit. Who gives a shit what each candidate is wearing? It is not an issue. If I wanted a stylish president, I would look in GQ or Esquire, not in Congress.

I want a leader that will do what is right for the country as a whole not because it will provide the maximum benefit, but because it is the right thing to do. I am an idealist, I want to see the best in people.

To be completely honest, I think that both Obama and McCain would be a great president. Obama is a visionary to say the least, and McCain is a great moderate that has not had troubles jumping over the aisle. The problem is the rest of government and its politics. Both the House and the Senate are severely fucked. There is too much division and subversion going on that is preventing this country from moving forward. We spend too much money on 'pet projects' and not enough money on things that matter. Right now approximately 1% of the entire US population is homeless. This is sad. How much would it cost to provide the homeless with stable housing, drug treatment, medical attention, and provide them with training and jobs? So far the Iraq war has cost between 500 and 600 billion dollars; could we have solved the homeless problem with that much funding? [The answer is that we could have put an enormous dent in the homeless population.]

At this moment, we have so many problems...but not enough solutions and not enough people that give a damn about things that matter.

Randy Pausch

Today is a not a sad day, but an unfortunate day. Randy Pausch died today at 47 of pancreatic cancer. I never met him in person or even talked to him, but his 'Last Lecture' was truly inspiring. He knew we was dying, but that didn't stop him from living. Amazing, just amazing. He taught more in his dying than most will ever do living. His 3 children may never know the extent of their father's reach...but the rest of the world will.

Link

Video

To cheer myself up

Hooray for defining innuendos!

What is new in my life

So many things have changed in the past two weeks.

I told my mentor that I will not be returning in the fall. So I will be working with her until the end of the summer and then I will be on my own. This is completely uncharted territory for me; I have never been in a position where I did not know what was coming next. So I have started to look for jobs, my family has been sending me postings for job nearly constantly (which is good). Although I have found out that for most of the jobs that they send me, I am not qualified for....unfortunate. So my plan is to apply for substitute teaching and the Peace Corps. I figure that if I am going to take a break from school, I might as well do something worth while.

It has been a while since I last posted. Much has happened in my life in that time. But today, I am not going to talk about me...I just have to get something off my chest: Conservapedia.

I saw a mention of it, and I thought that I would see just how accurate it was, especially since in its own icon it says, "The Trustworthy Encyclopedia." To compare it, I needed another online encyclopedia; for this I used Wikipedia, although not the best....it is a benchmark. So being a scientist, I started with something controversial...something that I would expect to see the most differences; for this I chose 'Evolution.' My assumption was correct, the differences were vast.

First, lets see an excerpt from Wikipedia: "In biology, evolution is the process of change in the inherited traits of a population of organisms from one generation to the next."

From Conservapedia: "Merriam-Webster's dictionary gives the following definition of evolution: 'a theory that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences are due to modifications in successive generations.'"

Wait, so an an encyclopedia you have to cite the dictionary? WTF? The beginning of the Conservapedia article sounds like the beginning of a high school graduation speach. Well, maybe there is something that is better down the page...

Conservapedia: "The fossil record is often used as evidence in the creation versus evolution controversy. The fossil record does not support the theory of evolution and is one of the many flaws in the theory of evolution.[10]" That little link at the end of the line is not linking to a scientific journal or any sort of publication, instead it is a link to the homepage of a man's personal page. He has a degree in Biology, although he does not say which one...and only passed with a C average. Does he have any publications? No, but he does have a blog on Creationism. Hardly a qualified poster in the evolution page.

The whole Conservapedia seems to be royally fucked on the information side as it is covered in asides and unnecessary political view points.

Sad. Just sad that this is what we have come to; mis-information to settle the masses.