A day in the week of October

Guess what people, i'm not dead.. and ive got posts to prove it.


It may be autumn here, but elsewhere in the solar system..
Theres a little robot on Mars travelling across the meridiani plain to reach the endeavor crater (not the one pictured). Didya know that? huh? huh? It's now been travelling over a year, taking pictures and sending back data from its journey along the way. It's unbearably cute and wondrous, but im surprised nasa didnt just let it land at the crater, poor thing. That said, i'm a great believer in what can be learnt and enjoyed from the journey rather than from the ending, so really, i understand.

[i like this guy]

As webcomics go, my interest is below average. The warcraft webcomic world is another universe of itself, and there seems to be quite a lot of variety. But i still take a bit of convincing.
It is interesting though that the range of styles mirrors the range of players you get. Ultimately, it reflects the two main categories. You've got the creative, imaginative types that play to explore the world, get mixed up in the story for a month, and go away making up their own little story arcs (as if we weren't having trouble keeping up with blizzard's already). It tends to vary from in-character sketches to long, winding sagas. It's become such a scene blizzard have started taking entries and publishing their favourite fan stories which are sold alongside the official manga.

[i like this guy too]

Then there are the self absorbed groupie types who digitally hang out together to go raiding with their "guildies" *twitch* and who approach the game as simply something to fill the social void in their lives.. No offence to these people. Their comics are mostly players making 'witty' observations about 'noobs' (which seems to mean people with anything less than 5 epic-geared lvl 80s... so about 95% of WoW players) and, you know, in jokes. Ok to be fair, they occasionally get it right.. but still.. I can't help my disgust at those with the pissy 'Oh you need at least X of stat Y to play' attitudes and the embarrassingly struggling grip on reality. Um, so you can probably guess which category i relate to.
Lastly, it's also nice to see the number that are produced by girl players. Because despite what people may have you believe, girls do play. Incidentally, i didnt find all these myself, im not that sad. I cheated.


The other day some stuff happened that made charlie brooker, derren brown and stephen fry all feel very important, more so than usual, and they all still are by the sounds. If somehow you missed it because, i don't know, you were on holiday in a the middle of the sahara desert and the batteries had gone flat on all your internet compatible devices- in which case i'm very sorry to hear that and i cant imagine how you survived- this should sum it up for you.
But the original article is really very boring. If you'd like a better translation of it, this one translates perfectly.


Um, For now, thats all i've got..

Mass debate all over the world

WARNING. This is a VERY long and possibly boring post. It has been a long time coming, though please don't take that as an indication of the quality you should expect. This is really just the sum of something i've been interested in for some time.

Being a citizen of the internet, i cannot help but observe a lot of talk referring to some kind of upcoming 'end is nigh' that is due pretty soon. Various end-of-days prophecies include the 'end' of the Mayan calender, global warming, the manifestation of the new world order, and the second coming of jesus.
I'm not so much interested in the prophecies- i've heard them so many times. What interests me is everyones thoughts on the destiny and purpose of mankind.

In britain, we have a compact and rich enough culture that we have a relatively consistant vision of society. On the whole, we all seem to share core beliefs: Science is real, education is good, music is important, no one has to be christian if they don't want to be and there is nothing wrong with a good fantasy about elves and wizards.

Certain larger, younger cultures are a little more schizophrenic and polarised about the topic. Different groups tug at society to bring them round to their way of thought before it's too late. At first it seems there are two teams, the filthy, peace-loving liberals vs the hateful, fundamentalist republicans. But the more i expose myself to american media the more it seems apparent there are in fact several, seperate areas of tension, not necessarily all running parallel with each other: Not all scientists are atheists, some christians respect nature, and not all satanists actually adopt individualism.

The following is simply an analysis of some of the moral conflicts i see coming out of america right now, in my view, so far. I've included links so you cant accuse me of making it up. Make what you will of it.. debate is very welcome.

CHRISTIANITY VS PAGANISM
-Humanity vs Nature-

This is about those that see humanity as the centre of everything; and those that see humanity as a tiny part of a bigger, deeper world. 'Christian' and 'Pagan' are old terms- but many modern day values and ideas derive from their ancient schools of thought.

Team 1: Take a look at abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam.. The deities are human like, the baddies are beast-like. It presents humans as above animals. God is only interested in human affairs and for them it is debatable if animals even have souls. At its heart is a god justifying anything man does as long as it keeps up the worship. The existence of nature is a mere footnote in mankind's story.

Team 2: On the other hand, Pagans- and this really applies to native religions globally- personify all aspects of the earth, life, and celestial bodies. Hills, springs, rocks, trees.. all of these maybe haunted or personified by other worldly spirits. These spirits are not always humanlike, and aren't always around for human benefit. They just exist because that's what the world is like. In scandinavia especially, entire valleys and mountains were left untouched out of respect for the sprits there. This view sees mankind in a humble place as piece of nature, not an authority above it.

The clash:
We know about the environmentalist movement. Global warming, concern for animal welfare and the recent interest in organic and sustainable farming. But not everyone is ok with this.
If i may quote a christian describing pagan values: "Neo-Pagan-Borderline-Satanic-the-Environment-is-more-important-than-human-life beliefs."

Another, more blunt article explains:

"The environmental movement is consumed with trying to preserve the planet forever, and we know this is not God's plan". "So we see that rather than trying to preserve the earth for thousands or even millions of years to come, we are to be good stewards of it for as long as it lasts"

..Interesting. The latter author points out the bible says 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it'. Apparently judgment day will come before our resources run out, so we should go ahead, reproduce as much as possible and use them up. You can see how this isn't going to work with environmentalism, can't you.

The Georgia Guidestones. One rule dictates the human population should not exceed 500,000,000 and stay in balance with nature. So the pagans say we should control our numbers, the christians say we should mulitply as much as possible and god will sort it all out when he gets back. I see an ethical shit storm brewing.
This almost 'fuck nature, we're humans!' view seems to reflect a subtle sentiment weaved into all kinds of christian messages, political decisions, and, frequent troll attacks on science websites..

..Back in the day science and Christianity were good buddies. But the day science claimed we were not the centre of the universe- and we orbited the sun- was the day science fell out of favour with Christianity. And everyday since then, as science continues to map mankind's tiny place in the universe, his evolution from the animals, and the huge physical systems beyond his control, the wider that gap grows. And science is reminded every single day of it.

FAITH VS SCIENCE
-Ignorance vs Enlightenment-

At first this looks like an extension of the last paragraph but actually, the conflict between science and religion involves a little more. Over the last 2,000 years alone, humanity has apparently fluctuated between times of 'enlightenment' (when criticism and logic have been favoured) and times of 'faith' (when 'gods word' dictated everything, and the bible was to be read literally).

Team 1: Those who like scientific thought, see technology and education as something that can help humanity achieve great things, and see faith merely holding humanity back in a state of blind ignorance, or 'darkness', as in the 'dark ages'.

Team 2: Then there are those who condemn modern technology in the name of faith- the catholic church being an excellent example. They see radical thought and change as unstable and the work of the devil, destined to bring war, unrest and 'unsaved souls' upon the world.

The clash:
To put this conflict in very literal terms, let me explain the Luciferians. That's right- people that follow lucifer. Make what you will of most of this article, i'd like to quote him to sum up this "Luciferian" view:

'God of the material world is seen as a stubborn and sadistic figure who seeks to keep mankind into perpetual darkness, while Lucifer is the savior of humanity by giving it the gift of knowledge. If we reinterpret the Adam and Eve story through Luciferian glasses, the serpent is actually the “undercover savior” who defied God and gave humans the opportunity to become gods themselves. He is credited to have unleashed man’s awesome potential.'

In short, Luciferians don't see Lucifer- the "light bringer"(hence the terms 'illuminati' and 'enlightened')- as a destroyer of humanity, but a creator of humanity.. reverse engineering the world and teaching it to mankind, breaking them away from the animals and closer to godliness. By gaining knowledge and questioning god's world, we are denying the fear and power god holds over us- the pope's worst nightmare. Science, in a religious leaders' view, is an anti-god revolution led by Satan.

Of course this isn't exclusive to religion, we see it in society everywhere because it reflects more fundamental politics: People choose to educate others. Perhaps this isn't as much faith vs reason, as a battle between those who see benefit in distributing knowledge, and those who see benefit in restricting it. And then there is the problem of how much and what knowledge is distributed or withheld. And then, the extra problem of what to replace the void left by ignorance.. something charming like superstition, or something more.. manipulative, like fear?

A cute example of the transition from ignorant peasantry to enlightened living in the modern world is here. Note the other villagers even refer to the windmills as 'witchcraft' when the crops fail..

RELIGION VS ATHEISM
-Order vs Chaos-

It is the general popular belief that order is good and chaos is evil. This is the general popular belief. There is no reason to assume, of course, that authorities and law abiders cannot do evil (think: holocaust) and the rebels and lawless cannot do good (think: robin hood). But because of the very nature of maintaining 'Order', it is important that the former is the general popular belief of the masses.

According to a recent poll, the most distrusted minority group in america are atheists. They are more distrusted than gays, muslims, and afro-americans. This is a country resident to godhatesfags.com and the KKK.
Richard Dawkins, an atheist who preaches with as much passion as even the most religious preacher, did an interview on american tv, demonstrating how american feathers are ruffled by atheism. Yes, Bill is an utter dickface, but he raises some common arguments. Hitler was an athiest! is the cry. Translation: Atheism makes people evil. Evil dictators, revolutionists, terrorists.. No wait, scratch that last one.. Even following the religion of an enemy is apparently better than not following one at all.

I get the feeling the issue here is not really as simple as religion vs non religion, It's:

Team 1: people that are trusted by a community- or heavily religious culture- because they share common values with it,
vs
Team 2: those that do not follow any traditional religious moral code, and thus seem weird or untrustworthy to team 1.

People are scared by what is not obvious to them and warm quickly to those who think and act alike. It's easy for people who've been brought up in a tight community to be brainwashed into assuming the worst of a stranger; Which, in turn, reinforces their need to demonstrate their loyalty to the communal values.. regardless of how hard they are to defend or how obvious it is their daughter is a lesbian or should really have an abortion.

The clash
So on the surface, religions appear to have 'order' pretty well pegged. They collect everyone under a single code or deity, preaching that unity brings peace. A single set of values, a single philosophy, a single vision of justice. They can decide on any rule and the masses will follow, regardless of how many steps back it takes them or how it threatens their environment.
But.. as christianity has shown, even for global mass-brainwashing religions this isnt quite so straight forward. The reality is, everyone's got their own 'vision' of justice, and in many cases, they would rather change the religion to resemble their vision than change the vision resemble the religion. And its not hard to have an excuse.. hell, divorcing your wife so you can get another is as good a reason as any.
As religion spreads, more humans take it on and go their own place with it. If religion actually brought order, history would be different. Truth is, we are adaptable creatures and as we spread, we have to adapt, and our values adapt too. Order has to be abandoned and rebuilt, or just partially abandoned altogether. Atheism is not a big leap. Maybe between chaos and order, neither extreme is possible to realistically sustain, due to the inherently unavoidable 'context sensitive' nature of human behaviour.

'News for your neurons', or those of you who have some

Right. Im fucking sick of this. I am through to the back fucking teeth.

DEAR WIRED.COM COMMENTORS,

YOUR COMMENTS FUCKING SUCK. ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID. AM I SPEAKING IN SMALL ENOUGH SENTENCES FOR YOU. CAN YOU READ THIS WITHOUT CAPS LOCK. try this. oh, you can't. SORRY I MEAN OH, YOU CAN'T. ergh, i give up already.


-Case 01-

Ok lets start with todays one. It's an article about electric fish. You know, eels & stuff. Utterly fascinating. Anyway, the comments: You probably won't believe me so i took a screenshot:


..What the hell?
"Hi guys, just in case for some reason you can't read the last 4 comments, thought i'd just let you know 100hz is a low buzz and not a high whine, even though obviously, such descriptions are entirely relative."
I can't decide if these guys have some mental condition which makes them assume Wired can only read their comments; or if they all had some extreme derren-brown-subliminal-brainwash moment and just mindlessly re-iterated the first thing they saw in their peripheral vision, instead of whatever they meant to put. Any thoughts?


-Case 02-

Ok this is one that comes up every fucking time an article contains the word evolution in it. This article is on Darwin. Yeh, can you believe a science mag did an article evolution? Oh yeh! They so went there. Wired have - and i would normally disagree with censorship, but here i think it is totally justified- removed the bulk of troll comments. Never the less, odd gems remain:

Posted by: Kyle | 02/11/09 | 9:32 pm
may i suggest you leave this kinds [sic] of topics alone. bad move wired. i am a huge fan but not with this stuff.

Posted by: Anonymous | 02/11/09 | 6:54 pm
False Teaching

Posted by: Anonymous | 02/11/09 | 8:21 pm

“— and there are lots of big, unanswered questions”. That’s why it’s a therory, [sic] not a law.

Posted by: Eternal | 02/12/09 | 12:21 am

200 years later and 64% of the American populace still realizes that intelligent design makes more sense than evolution. Only 26% of the population is so close-minded they won’t look at the evidence that doesn’t support their theory.

Posted by: Scott | 02/12/09 | 3:24 am
Science gone mad. Using scientific method, noone could be serious that evolution makes sense. Find a new theory and stop trying to be clever.

What.. the hell? What kind of magazine did these people imagine they were reading? Its got "WIRED SCIENCE" written across the top in full capitals, bright green ones at that. Were these people expecting some kind of creationist sermon? Ok so even you honestly believe your religion cannot co exist with evolution, that's not an excuse to be a moron.. right?


-Case 03-

Here's another one, that, being a SCIENCE magazine, wired cannot help but occasionally report on. It's about the environment, and how some scientists have been able to peg down environmental thresholds before human civilisation is threatened. Note, it is a SCIENCE magazine, reporting on what some scientists say they have found.



Ah, the good old 'We-armchair-readers-know-better-than-trained-scientists' brigade.. it wouldn't be a wired post without them. Again: what did they think they were reading? "Oh hey, look at this mag! they've got an article on earth science! What are they, some kind of SCIENCE MAGAZINE!?" I think you're getting my point by now.


-Case 04-

Finally, although by no means the last example- jeez, we've barely scratched the surface here- a potentially ethical article. The article basically says some scientists have found that torture is a flawed method of interrogation because stress affects recall negatively, as well as affecting memory function itself in prolonged cases. Note that the article doesn't really touch on any ethical or moral ideas about torture.
Not that wired commentors would have noticed.

Posted by: PJW11 | 09/21/09 | 1:33 pm

So torture is bad. Alrighty then, we have the moral high ground. At least until it gets blown up from underneath us. It’s like being a pacifist yet expecting a police officer to defend you if you’re being burglarized, you can’t demand security from groups willing to torture you and then pick and choose how you will be defended.

For those of you who don't speak moron, I offer a translation: "dddduuugh, cant read."

Posted by: PR3DA7OR1AL | 09/21/09 | 2:59 pm
Waterboarding, sleep deprivation, stress positions (such as seperating one from many) and the exploitation of phobias are all used TO BREAK A PERSON DOWN TO AN EMOTIONAL LEVEL.

Again: Probably cant read. Yes, torture breaks people down to an emotional level. Congratulations. Now go back and read the article again and observe what it has to say about that emotional level interfering with memory reliability. You are looking for information remember.. not emotions.. remember? Oh, maybe you just didn't care. I get the feeling your interest in torture has absolutely nothing to do with military intelligence. So why comment on the article? Just get yourself on down to your local BDSM club!


Oh, i could go on and on. Take for example, how the comments on this and this article completely disagree about wired's ulterior agenda for Apple. It's just bizarre. Where the hell do these readers come from? Maybe they should do an article about that.

With half the race gone, theres only half the race still to go

In my [second from] last post i left you guys on a cliffhanger, wondering whether the next post would be today, tomorrow or yesterday. If you correctly guessed 'today', congratulations! You must be psychic, you freak!!


Back in my latter teen years, i lived with my dad in a little 2-bedroom terraced cottage in the village. Downstairs we had a little kitchen, and a dingy bathroom, but there was no living room. Instead, the huge area of space formerly the lounge was my dad's office.

My father is an 'engineer consultant', meaning folks hire him to design engine parts [for cars, bikes & others] and/or explain to them why their previous rubbish designs have gone horridly wrong. His desks- and usually the chairs, floor and rest of the room- would be covered in drawing tools, A1 design sheets, computers & peripherals and most interestingly- aluminum prototypes of the parts he was working on. He would bring them back from the factory and conveniently dump them on the floor in the one spot i was most likely to trip over or bash into them- a careless injury we both fell victim to several times, but he just never seemed to learn from.

I would come in from school or college each day and it wasn't hard to tell how my dad's day had been. Some days i would be flatly ignored. Other days i'd walk in to be greeted by an ecstatic HELLO!; have some cylinder head model shown to me and asked what did i think. In pretty much both cases i hadn't a clue what i was supposed to say.

Given the good relationship i have with my dad, the fact i lived in his office a few years and met many of his colleagues, it does seem strange that i've never been exposed much to the industry he works in. I've never been to any races before so the racing industry is an alien world to me. So, when he invited me, it was with mixed anticipation that i went along to see his latest project working for Embassy Racing, WF01, race at Silverstone, in the final round of this years Le Mans Test Series.

Le Mans, 'The grand prix of endurance racing' is the grand prix for sports cars. Unlike formula one- a dull sprint for race drivers in prototypes that are only built to survive the race- These are actually intended to be real cars for real people on real roads. The main race lasts a full 24 hours(!). It is accompanied by the test series- in which cars race for, oh, "only" 6 hours. Also, rather than the Formula1-esque procession around the track, four classes race at different speeds on the track at the same time. Each car only competes with other cars in the same class, but they all have to negotiate each others traffic. The race the long, cars often do not make it to the end and positions are constantly changing.

Saturday was test day, and rich-people-get-your-old-museum-cars-out day, so we went down to the pits to check up on Team WFR - formerly Embassy Racing until they went bankrupt last year- and their car, WF01.
Apparently the night before they'd had, well, a bit of a crash. The back half of the body work was in a big pile lying around outside, with dazed mechanic dude casually picking bits up wondering what would be good to take home for the kids.




fortunately, race teams pack spares, so the car won't be racing like this.




As you can i see.. it was one of those times when i didn't think to bring a camera. Hence the shakey pics off my dads phone.

Surprisingly, I didn't get bored, to both my and my dads delight, in fact i enjoyed it so much i agreed to come back the next day for the full 6 hour course.

The car did pretty damn well. About an hour in it reached 3rd place in P2 class. It then reached 2nd place which it held for an hour, causing my dad to bounce around in his seat. Then, with a couple of hours left, something went wrong and they had to get back to the pits. Apparently something to do with a generator? They lost a lot of time but got it back out. The car made up laps and managed to get 4th place, respectable given the circumstances. The final race results are here (p2 class are in blue). And, if you're really sad and geeky, the timings and mid-race results are here.

We didn't leave empty handed though, dad went back to the pits to pick up something dazed mechanic dude had promised for him- a trophy from the smashed car body work, which, having also designed, he was immensely pleased with. When we got home he cut it in half and gave me half.. which was pretty immense. So: if u ever see a chunk of carbon fibre lying around in my room, you all know what it's from.



If you look closely at the first picture you can probably work out where it's from.. it's off the main chunk, at the bottom- which was once originally the middle in between the back wheels. The lump goes over a joint in the rear wheel suspension. The edges have been taped over with gaffa tape, after he cut his finger on the rough edge earlier. At least that's one careless injury he did learn from.

Peado on the street

Guys, i need your advice. I think there's a peado on our street, and i'm not sure what to do. Ok i'll explain.
Yesterday i was walking back to the house and the weird neighbour guy was hanging around outside his house with the kids of our street like he often does. He looks kinda old and sleazy you know like how peados do. And he started talking to me and asked my name, then pointed to himself and slowly goes 'Clarence' like i'm some non-english-speaking polish person. And the kids go, 'you can call him Clary' which is a shit name but its like he's got them all used to his presence, u know? So I said, are they your kids and he says, no theyre from next door. And now i think of it, they ARE from next door. BUT THIS IS FREAKY BIT. And then he goes, 'but this one..' [he puts his arms around the girl stood next to him] 'shes my special girl' and then he pulls her close and kisses her on the head and goes 'love her to bits.' And i'm like WTF, but i didnt show it, i just kinda chuckled and said oh right and then went back home.
But this other time, i was walking past the girls house and her and her mum were looking out a window at 'Clary' and her mum was going 'you're a smooth talker aren't you? piss off!' So i guess she obviously knows.

But still amirite to think its weird, or am i just over reacting?

Btw: whilst typing this, one of spellchecks alternatives was 'peadar'.. is that, a peado radar right? guys, where do i get one?

Postarama woot

Today i had i quick look through my blog folder and realised a huge quantity of of my posts are still sitting behind the scenes as drafts. You probably only see up to about two thirds of the posts i write.

Some of them are long rambling posts i got half way through and abandoned; actually most of those are still in Notepad and aren't even held on this site. Some were too brief- just a link and title left waiting for some intended content that i've clearly forgotten since. On at least one occasion i was going to post something quite fun with lots of links, but it required me to scan a flyer i'd found and i seem to have thrown away since :( The majority were abandoned because at the time i thought they were too boring, or i'd got part way through and had a thought that un-did everything i'd just said.

Anyway, today i went through a few of them and picked out a couple i could polish off and release, and that is the reason why these posts seem out dated or second rate. More might be released in future, especially if that flyer, or another one like it, somehow turns up.

Btw, tomorrow i may post aswell, as 'stuff' happened at the weekend with photos. But i don't know, check tomorrow. Or today, if you're reading this tomorrow, or yesterday as it'll be tomorrow, which'll actually be today, even, or whatever.

On the wings of a paradox

I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume no one here is an avid fan of the daily mail.

Today RobManuel posted this link on twitter. The tagline efficiently sums up the project as: 'Help to make sense of the Daily Mail’s ongoing effort to classify every inanimate object into those that cause cancer and those that prevent it.' The articles from which they are sourced are here.

Well.. dunno 'bout you guys, but it's good to be informed that i can reduce my chances of breast cancer by just getting morning sickness, and that radiation can apparently cause it.

Spot how many contradictions occur throughout the table. Red wine seems to be the most frequent, and each time the pill is mentioned it seems to be conclusively responsible for one or the other. Sex is another thing they're undecidedly certain about. Also 'work' re-occurs throughout the 'causes' column, and we know how daily mail readers feel about those who don't work.

I guess the truth is many of these items are responsible for solving one problem, but then cause another. Frankly, that's just the ebb and flow of life, nature and all it touches so far as i can tell.

So i guess the only thing we can learn from the daily mail today is: Sooner or later, one thing or another is going to get you. So why waste your life panicking about it in shitty newspapers?