Thursday, April 30, 2009

Twitter & Swine Flu

Okay, first of all, I don't get this big deal about the swine flu (yes, I am aware that WHO had changed the official name today, I'll get around to that). Okay, so 159 people died in Mexico, but there have been no deaths so far outside of Mexico (the baby who died in Texas came from Mexico, for those uninitiated). People die from regular flu too, and the swine flu is certainly not remotely as contagious or deadly as the avian flu or SARS. Really, what is the big deal? Why is this a pandemic and not the flu we see every year?

Second, couple days ago the news said people were spreading the panic on twitter and that people should twitter (tweed?) responsibly? What?? When are going to shift the responsibilities back to the audience/readers/recipients? If they have a twitter account, they have internet access. Do some research on your own! CNN.com is FREE!

And the changing of the name from swine flu to H1N1 because 300,000 pigs were being slaughtered in Egypt... I am speechless, how could health officials of a country not do some basic research before making such an order.... ???

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Friendfeed and Twitter

I can't help but wonder if these new sites are made specifically for ADHD kids (for those uninitiated, ADHD stands for Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder). If the sporadic limit to 140 characters (yes, characters, not words) short blurbs about what you are doing that minute is not random enough, you can port pretty much everything into this site calls Friendfeed. (I'm not sure why I even bother hyperlinking it.) You can import your twitter, blog, various bookmarking/recommending sites (delicious, stumble upon, digg etc. etc.) into it along with your feed on friendfeed and all the groups you are following. Ugh. If that's not bad enough (Helen, if you are reading this, I know I've lost you already, just skip to the next entry), every room/friend you follow plus whatever you posted will all display on the same page. I could literally hear my brain screaming bloody torture. Yesterday it has nice little icon that tells you which is which (blogger, feed, twitter, etc.), today they were all gone!!

Okay, I'm just bitching because I can. If they don't bring back the little icon, I am going to have to move onto greener pasture.

Oh, if I have forgotten to mention, in addition to twitter, blog, your bookmark, recoomendation, etc. etc. you can also import your netflix queue and amazon wish list... Is it me or does anyone else see the randomness in that? Perfect for a stalker I guess, you will literally be able to see every aspect of a person. Did they forget to allow one to import their grocery list?

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Militant Atheists

So I have been spending a lot of time browsing different atheism websites, blog, twitters, etc. lately and I must say, some of the attitudes that I came across were alarming and disturbing. It made me understood the terms "militant atheists" or "evangelical atheist." The militant atheists are behaving no different than religious fundamentalists, except for the cause. (Does that sound familiar to you?) That negativity towards religions made me very uncomfortable. I guess ultimately what I want to see is a country truly with a separation of church and state; and that political policies will be formed based on logical reasoning, not faith; and that people will vote base on a rational belief in the policies of their candidates, not their faith. I have no intention of joining a movement who purpose is to eradicate all religion beliefs! I guess deep down inside I still believe that a person's religious belief is personal and sacred; I don't like people forcing their beliefs on me, on the other hand, I also do not want to tell others what to believe!

What are the terms always used to redicule fundamentalists? Intolerance and bigotry came to mind. Is it not intolerance to want to stomp out all religious (those who disagree with our atheism viewpoint)? If it's bigotry to proclaim that one knows God exists and created the world etc. etc., is it not also bigotry to proclaim a Godlessness as a reality? Do not forget that while theists cannot prove that God exists, neither can atheist that God does not exist!

I believe in evolution, as a process; it does not, however, explain the beginning of life. The work of Charles Darwin was called "the Origin of Species," not "The Beginning of Life." If you know any basic physics (law of entropy), then you'd also know that the entire theory about the brown soap, molecules, along with energy from lightning forming first single cellular then complex cellular organisms was no more or no less a stretch than God made Adam and Even and plopped them onto earth. And even if scientists had, indeed, recreated the brown soup, the molecules, with an introduction of energy etc., there still left the question of: and where does all those came from?

My point is, trying to convert a country from a Christian-oriented nation to a non-faith based society is going to be an uphill battle. The ultimate goal is to educate people and let them choose for themselves. Being militant over any reason is not acceptable and not a solution to anything.

Monday, April 27, 2009

More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops - NYTimes.com

More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops - NYTimes.com

Wow! I did NOT realize that this whole atheism thing is a movement, and that I have inadvertently joined said movement. I guess I never thought religious is such a big deal coming from a place where what kind of cars do you drive and what brand of watches do you wear are a more prevailing questing that which church do you go to. But I suppose it will take a movement in this country to truly have separation of church and state.

You'd laugh when you hear about how I ended up joining this movement. Ready?

I went on Hulu.com to watch Celebrity Apprentice (yes, I was that bored if you must ask) -> the advertisement on Kiva.org preceded the actual show -> I went to visit Kiva.org (never did watch the episode of Celebrity Apprentice) -> bumped into this group called AASFSHNR (short for Atheists, Agnotics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists, and the Non-Religious)-> joined said group and have been following their discussion since

Yes, Celebrity Apprentice started it all. Go figure!

When I started this blog, it was only going to be about random, petty stuff in my life that nobody cares about... but I guess I did name it my soapbox -- blanket coverage for everything. :D

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Why We Believe in Gods - Andy Thomson - American Atheists 09

A 54-minute long video about the psychology behind religion.

The Rise of Atheism - ABC plus Christopher Hitchens

Hand of God, Ugh....

Title says it all.

Man selling ‘Hand of God’ rock to highest bidder

Listing on eBay

Check it out for yourself.... does kind of look like a hand, huh? Crossed my mind to say something like, if it's truly about spreading God's message, then he really should open up his backyard for public viewing (he may possible make more in donations with his touching story!). But hey, if he's willing to sell, and others are willing to buy, hence the invisible hand of economics. ;)

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Impressive Artwork by Charlotte Hughes Martin

Remarkable glass lobsters.



Glasses with bite marks:

Molly

More cat video...

Animals & Humans

I did not care for the entire FAA releasing birds striking planes data debate. I figured that people are still going to travel via planes one way or another, so what is the difference whether the general public knows the statistics or not. All I can think of is that people who had fear of flying will have even more reasons too (but nobody is afraid of reckless drivers on the road!! How about making accidents caused by reckless drivers public!!) Regardless, I saw this picture on Wired Science blog today and it just made me sad. As if taking away their habitat is not enough, we have also invaded their air space, was a bald eagle to know that they should not fly so fast during air traffic time? Will they be able to adopt the skill to not only look at preys on the ground but also planes in the sky before we drove them to extinction? Perhaps armed with the right knowledge, experts in the area can starting looking for a solution?



On a lighter note, here's a picture of our coexistence with (possibly-rabies-carrying) animals:-



Photo: Pixdaus.com

Friday, April 24, 2009

Trivial & Irony

Reading ExChristian.net puts me to shame about whining about a measly two Christian ladies sprouting about their religion. Evidently going from religious to non-religious can be as much of a struggle as a gay person coming out of the closet! But, is this the beginning of a movement? Can we one day achieve a not-so-religious country? Can we hold onto our hopes? O.o

Ironically, I found the website following a link from a site which appears to be owned by a Christian. This is what happens when you try modern technology like Scoutle.com to "match" your websites for. =D

Watch Maru

First time embedding a video in my blog. I'm coming out of the ice age!!

What I Want But Are too Chickshit to Put On My Car

This one is so cute, but I work with a tad too many religious folks to put it on my car. =(



These two are cute too:



Can someone please explain to me the relationship between Buddha and fish??!!!



But if you want to get them, this is the cheapest place I've found so far.

Mi Estupido Espouso...

are three of the very limited words that I know in Spanish.

After all the heavy postings in the past few days, I think I'd go with something lighter for a change.

Evidently, my husband needs more work at work -- he was so bored at work the other day that he decided to call up a loan agent to see how much we can qualify for, should we decide to buy a house in the bay area. Whatever makes him think that the loan agent can possibly tell him something that I couldn't was beyond me. I suppose it wasn't his fault, it was just that extra Y chromosome talking. [Yes, if I had failed to mention this before, I'm a sexist; I totally believe that female is the more superior of the two genders.]

Dude quote us the same amount quoted to us before! Before the housing melt down, that is! [Please see my earlier entry "My Husband, in a Nutshell" for the full story.]

Why does he do these things like this when I wasn't around? I have a billion smart retorts that I so wanted to dish out at this guy. A couple came to my mind right away:-

"You did hear that the CEO of Freddie Mae hung himself today, right? Or have you been following the news about what is going on in the outside world?"

or

"And how much is the monthly payment going to be for this amount?"

"$x."

"And if $x is the same our entire monthly income, how do you propose for us to pay for food, gas, electricity, or my feminine hygiene needs?"

"......."

Oh, believe me, I'll say just that. Okay, perhaps without the "feminine hygiene" part.

What a %$*()**@) #(%($^)!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

"...shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them"

Boy, for a book that's preceded with "Thou shall not kill," there sure were a lot of offenses that are punishable by death according to said book.

If the Bible Were Law, Would You Qualify for the Death Penalty?

Some examples:-

Cursing Parents
For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him. Leviticus 20:9

Working on the Sabbath
Whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Exodus 31:15

(Wow, this is hardcore, not that I am complaining about a legitimate reason to not work on Sundays. I work in an accounting firm, many peeps work on Sundays during busy season, does that mean....? :O)

Premarital Sex (girls only)
. . .If, however, this charge is true, that evidence of the young woman's virginity was not found, then they shall bring the young woman out to the entrance of her father's house and the men of her town shall stone her to death, Deuteronomy 22:20

Disobedience (boys only)
If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. They shall say to the elders of his town, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard." Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death. Deuteronomy 21:18

Girls who are Raped within the City Limits
If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city . . . But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. Deuteronomy 22:23-25

(Errr... not too sure what to make of the "because she did not cry out in the city" bit, but at least the second half was somewhat more sensible...)

Blasphemers
And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death. Leviticus 24:16

Anyone Who Tries to Deconvert Yahweh Worshipers
If anyone secretly entices you--even if it is your brother, your father's son or your mother's son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend--saying, "Let us go worship other gods," . . . you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to execute them. Deuteronomy 12:6

(AASFSHNR All: and this is why we should not try to preach atheism. ;)

Men who Lie With Men
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20:13

Men who Lie with Beasts and Beasts who Lie with Men
And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast. Leviticus 20:15

Gosh, what's with these people and their stonings??

God Hate Gay People?

I have always thought that when religious fundamentalists said "God hate gay people," it was just their wrongful interpretation of what's in the Bible. I thought it only said that intercourse between two person of the same gender is abnormal. I will never argue that it is not normal, of course it is not normal as two men or two women cannot naturally have babies together. Here are the actual quotes from an atheist forum:

Leviticus 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

Leviticus 20:13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

Wow!

It'll still be useful to memorize the quotes, next time a fundie expressed his/her opinion that God hate gay people, I could at least ask, "Really, where exactly did it say so?" and see how many can answer that question. ;)

Innovative & Modern?

I guess when it comes to innovative and modern, it's okay to kick practicality to the curb. Check out these new & innovative beds...



I quite like this one... looks very zen... my concern? Can you see the TV through that little gap? :O



Credits:
Freshhome
WebUrbanist
Private Cloud

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

From Theism to Atheism; From Atheism to Agnosticism

For the longest time I have been referring to myself as an atheism; only until recent, after a deep conversation (via IM while I was at work) with my cousin that I was introduced to a new term -- agnostics. It was then that I realized that I have been mislabelling myself for at least half of the time when I called myself an atheism.

If you have no idea what the differences between atheism and agnostics are, to put it simply, atheism believes in neither deities nor ghosts, whereas agnostics are... pretty much an "I don't know" or that it cannot be comprehended.

Many reasons drove me from theism to atheism, some are more legitimate than others... I was raised Catholic although I'm not sure I ever really subscribed to that idea. It was more a attending masses with my grandmother (yes, raised with grandmother). As a kid, at some point you just get sick of the idea of sacrificing your wonderful Sunday morning beauty sleep to go to church. I remember I distinctively told my grandmother that, "If there is a God, I'm pretty sure He knows that I don't believe. So what is the point of me going to church?" It was not well taken but she never pushed the issue either. I guess a lot of it is having a scientifically-oriented mind. Perhaps it is a good idea that Kansas banned the teaching of evolution. Why let people make their own choice of what to believe when you can just keep them dumb and ignorant and just believe in what you want them to? Even as a resource for a set of moral guidelines for the societies, a lot of the stories/teachings in the Bible are simply bizarre.

Secondly, I found the idea of theism, whether it's the Western (Bible-oriented religion) or Eastern (Buddhism) version of it, very disturbing. The initial Catholic version taught to me was: whether you are a good person or not. My Mormon friend B says her church subscribe to more or less the same idea. In which case, as long as you are a nice person, whether you literally believe in God/Jesus Christ/the Bible or not is not as important. Now the fundamental Christian's version was a lot more difficult to stomach, the way it was explained to me: whether you believe in the Bible/God/Savior (whatever their terminology is) is the sole criteria of whether you will be saved when the apocalypse happens. Ugh. It does not help when the lady preaching to me have all three lines, "God gave you free will (but if you don't choose to believe you are doomed)," "If you believe, you will naturally be a good person," (again, ugh), and I don't believe she ever quite adequately explain how the people who never had contact with the concept of God/Bible in their lifetime will be judged...

That aside, I felt that if I believe there is a God, I will also have to believe that there are ghosts (which are just spirits), and that idea did not sit well with me. Last but not the least, even subscribing to the Catholic more lenient version, I failed to see the draw of Heaven -- being with God, your creator, for all eternity. I guess in the end it all came down to the fact that I think eternity is a very horrible concept, regardless of whether I'm in hell, heaven, or this earthly world.

Buddhism, albeit a lack of a true deity, failed me the same way. I found the idea of reincarnation even more disturbing than Heaven/hell. If life is purposeless, what's the point of doing it over and over and over and over and over again? Problem #1: I was born in a nice middle income family in this life time, I might not be so lucky next time. I can conceivably be born as a female in a country where they still have civil upheaval or, worse, genital mutilation. Or, nobody said you will necessarily be human, I could reincarnate into a pig, raised only as food for humans. Not a very pleasant thought, is it? Some version (only version?) says that what's dealt to you in your next life depends on what your contribution in this lifetime is -- being a good person this lifetime will "earn" you a better life in the next, being a bad person will get you the opposite; you get the idea. I have read a fictional story that wittily integrated the two sets of beliefs by equating "a better next life" as heaven, and a worse one as hell. Ultimately, the goal of Buddhism is to achieve enlightenment, then you come back to this physical world to spread the "gospel" of Buddhism. Again, I ask the same question, "Why? What's the purpose of it all?"

Since I was unable to find a satisfactory answers in the two most mainstream thoughts of religion, I chose to go with the least disturbing choice -- atheism.

(to be continued)

Monday, April 20, 2009

Creative Juice Boxes

Juice boxes and look and feel like the actual fruit. Designed by Naoto Fukusawa.





(Link via The Cosmonauts' Naoto Fukusawa: let the product speak for itself)

Sunday, April 19, 2009

A Clock with an Attitude

I've been randomly surfing the web today, can you tell?

(Link via Popped Culture's So What's The Time)

What IS Twitter??

For those of you who are as confused about what this Twitter thing is as my husband and I, here's an article from LA Times that explains to you what it started out as and what it has evolved into:

Do only twits tweet?

VHEMT

Are these guys serious? :O It definitely sounds like a joke to me... but at this day and age, who knows?



VHEMT - The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Bad News: Scientists Make Cheap Gas From Coal

Bad News: Scientists Make Cheap Gas From Coal

Sometimes it's almost as interesting to read people's comments on an article as reading the article itself. Evidently many people out there simply doesn't give a shit about the environment and global warming. Now I want to precede by saying that I'm not a fanatic about environment issues; I don't go to the extreme but I do little things that's well within my means and doesn't cause to much hardship, i.e. recycling -- paper, boxes, plastic bags (no biggie), not leaving my computer turned on all the time, stuff like that.

One person's remark was: I am going to idle my SUV and leave all the lights on in my house when I am not home. Certainly he could not be serious about it, environment or not, you still have to pay for the gas and electricity. I suppose this individual could quite literally put his money where his mouth is by donating to gas and electricity companies. Yet I couldn't help but wonder the reasoning behind these individuals' responses -- do they think that the whole global warming is a hoax? That scientists and the government just made it up for whatever reasons? Or that God simply won't leave us high and drive (have you read the story of Moses?).

My husband, who is not crazy about the enviornment, pointed out that climate changes are natural in the history of earth. If we subscribe to that theory (facts), then we also should keep in mind that there were periods in geographical time that this planet was quite uninhabitable by human, or most other mammals and birds for that matter. If human's activities on earth is not the sole culprit that is bringing about global warming, it could very well be a contributing factor and certainly won't hurt to slow down the process. I've got to admit, I'm selfish, since I have no offsprings of my own and don't plan on having any, all I really care is the sustainability of earth to the day I die, anything beyond that is not my problem. But many of these people who redicule the entire issue have offsprings, and many of them! Do they not want to do what they can to ensure their survival on this planet? It might be a while before we make any other planets inhabitable. We really shouldn't even begin to fantom that until space travel became a reality, for most. To me, this whole having offsprings but not care about the environment thing is about as oxymoron as people smoking in Disneyland before it is banned -- we love our kids, that's why we bring them to Disneyland, but we don't love them enough to care about them getting lung cancers.

And then there are others who believe that "Oh, the scientists will figure out a solution." Really? After all the shit that's going on, we are still going to bury our heads in the sand and believe in that? I'm sure the scientists have very good intention and are very talented, but in the end of the day, progress is driven by greed, not so much the survival of the species (ironic, huh?). What I meant is: scientists need to live too, they cannot dedicate a lot of time in researches that they do not have funding on. And where does funding come from? Government or entreprenuers who want returns on their investments. So far it's not looking like there are a lot of immediate returns on green technology. In the end, the general public is not going to embrace solar panels or hybrid cars unless they see how it can fatten their pocket books. And the government, government is, unfortunately, not an entity that focuses solely on their citizens' well being. Instead, it is made up of many individuals, called politicians, whose behaviors are governed by how they can stay in their current position or move to the next one. So you see? In the end, there aren't a lot of driving force to do anything drastic to halt the destruction to the environment, let alone reversing it. Buddy, it's all down to you and I as individuals, not the mythical scientists or worse, the government.

I have my theory about how this world will come to an end when (not if) it comes to an end. I have narrowed it down to one of the following scenarios:-

(1) technology has improved to a point that ALL computer systems are linked to each other (kinda like the six degree of separation for computers), and a global terrorism that takes them all out in one go. Although this is more of a degradation of civilization scenario than the destruction of mankind scenario per se

(2) nuclear war (any day now)

(3) natural disaster such as an asteroid hitting us, or the climate on earth became uninhabitable to us in it's own course

(4) and the most likely, brought about by dumb people who will overpopulate this planet by maximizing their God given right to reproduce and depleting us of all necessary resources (land, air, water, food, etc.) and/or bringing about global warming.

My money is on #4.

A Quote from Robert A. Heinlein

History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Money & Happiness

"Studies Show that Money Can Buy Happiness" says an article (I wish I have the link, but I don't). I am still waiting for a study that shows that "people cannot survive a 38-floor fall." Exactly how do these so-called researchers got the funding for these researches? I could have told you that, in less amount of time, why not just give me the funding directly? (O would argue that "ah, but you won't have the empirical data to support it.")

Yesterday I saw a link from Yahoo, "Studies Show That People Who Smiled in Their High School Photos Have More Successfully Marriage Rate." Who came up with these topics and exactly how DO they get the funding? Are they like those sales people who can allegedly sell a refrigeration to an Eskimo, maybe even with an ice-dispenser?? Or, how is the term "researchers" defined? Do you have to at least have a phD degree, or a group of phD wannabes will suffice, or maybe even a group of high school student browsing through facebook.com or classmate.com looking at people's high school photos? But I digressed...

With the part that money can buy happiness established, I think we should add some qualifiers (these aren't even in the article that I originally read, told you they should just gave me the grant money!). Money can buy happiness if and only if the following criterias are met:-

(1) reasonable health (I highly doubt a terminally ill patient or someone in a lot of pain will be able to achieve happiness. I'd say peacefulness of the soul at best.)

(2) loves ones around (or ample amount of time have passed since the loss of a loved one)

Once these criterias are met, money can most certainly bring about happiness -- you can quit that job you hate; you can go travel around the world, and take whoever you want with you; you will even have all the time in the world to do all the soul-searching that you want.

[I want to say that perhaps the obscenely rich can still feel empty inside, but since I do not have possession of an obscene amount of money, or know anyone that are obscenely rich, that would just be my bitterness talking.]

Oh, one more qualifyier, although we've established that money can, indeed, buy happiness; one must continue to keep in mind that what will bring about happiness to one may not necessarily have the same effect to another. Each person has their own definition of what happiness is.

The Nation That Embraces Pills

A commercial started with a statement that "75% of people who are on anti-depressant drugs are still depressed." (I'll be damned if I remember what that commercial was selling.) I suppose the intent of that statement at the beginning of the commercial is the shock effect; I was, however, more shocked by the fact that they made a point of pointing that out. Depressions that are purely hormonal based are probably quite rare; so unless prescriptions drugs can make a person's financial, emotional, or other issues disappear, how would it be beneficial? If anything, there are probably potential side-effects that are yet to be discovered. (And already discovered side effect includes loss in sexual drive. But why would that matter when you can pop a little blue pill?)

Americans' love for prescription drugs are arguably unparalleled with any other nations in the world; we try to solve every possible issues with a pill -- depression, take a pill; sexual incompetency, take a pill; want to have sex but don't want to have kids, take a pill (okay, that is still better than having lots of unwanted children); pills for weight loss has been in research for a while now and the chemical cause for hair to turn gray with aging has been recently isolated and a pill to "cure" that may not be far away. Do people not realize that any form of chemical ingested to alter your body's natural function will probably cause more harm than good? (Speaking of gay acts being "unnatural"!) The jury is still hung on the long term effect of taking multivitamins on a regular basis!

And the most oxymoron drugs of it all? People who prefer herbs over western medicine taking ginseng and/or garlic pills. Am I the only one who sees the irony here?

Monday, April 13, 2009

Sunday, April 12, 2009

The End of Christian America

An article in Newsweek quoting that according to 2009 American Religious Identification Survey, the number of Americans identifying themselves with no religion affiliation has doubled since 1990, from 8% to 15%. It's a small step, but could we really have hope that one day our country will truly become less-than-Christian America?

The End of Christian America

Redundancy

Found this on the internet and thought I'd share.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

The HOW versus the WHY

A quote from the blog entry -- Reporting From the Front Lines of the Texas Evolution Debate -- by Juli Berwald:-
Science is about explaining the how of the natural world: how the universe began, how life originated, how the diversity of species occurred. Scientists feel no need for their work to answer why the universe exists, why we are here. For scientists, those are questions better left to philosophy, religion and after-work hours.

Perhaps creationists find theories that only answer how to be completely unsatisfactory. Maybe for creationists, any theory that doesn't answer why contains weaknesses.

<...>

Maybe evolutionists and creationists can't find common ground because they really aren't even having the same argument. Scientists are fighting to preserve their ability to answer how unimpeded by why. Creationists are fighting to have answers to why, unthreatened by answers to how.
I think it was very well said.

Maybe people can be crudely divided into two major and one subgroup -- those who MUST have a why and will take whatever how there is that will fit into the why (because quite frankly, God creating Adam and Eve and just dropped them on earth is kind of a cop out); those who can accept, and fortunate enough to be exposed to, the how even if it doesn't explain the why (or are simply okay with the idea that we have no idea about how OR why); and a subgroup/spinoff of the first group -- those who just believe in everything they were told literally and never given a thought as to how or why.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Way to Go, Vermont!!

Woohoo!! I was genuinely surprised today when I opened up my Gmail and saw a news alert that gay marriage has been legalized in Vermont. I would not say that I am in tears, but I am ecstatic. 4 down! 46 more to go! And I have always thought that California and New York will be among the first to legalize gay marriage... :(

Interesting article from the other side:

FRC Urges Citizen Action Following Votes in Vermont, DC
"Same-sex 'marriage' is a movement driven by wealthy homosexual activists and a liberal elite determined to destroy not only the institution of marriage, but democracy as well. Time and again, we see when citizens have the opportunity to vote at the ballot box, they consistently opt to support traditional marriage," said Perkins.

"The vote today by the D.C. City Council was a direct affront to the federal Defense of Marriage Act. The radical Left wants to destroy the traditional union of one man and one woman across the country and they will not rest until they do so.
I am still very much confused since the beginning of this whole discussion. I am heterosexual, exactly how does gays getting married destroy my union with my husband or even infringe on my rights again? With or without the religious undertone, this is just another one of those fanatic, brain-washed propaganda.

I will give you an example, I have known this gentleman who has been married 5 times. FIVE! Twice to the same woman. If you REALLY want to argue about the destruction of the institution of marriage, please go after these folks first. I can understand one mistake, two. Any more than that, you are not even taking this seriously. Did you even stop for a moment to think about WHY you want to marry this person? Have you seriously considered spending the rest of your life with him/her? Strange, I see marraige as a pledge between two individual in front of friends and family about your decision/determintion/commitment to spend the rest of your lives with the other person. The gender of the individuals are completely irrelevant.

I quote this comedian that I have seen on TV once (and I apologize for I have forgotten his name, but he as in the first season of Last Comic Standing), "Gay marriage? How does that concern me? -- Next, people will want to marry their dogs. -- Again, how does that concern me?" Exactly. Same sex couple, opposite sex couple, their getting marry will not affect my marriage in any way. It's a right and nobody should be discriminated against it.

That said, to our lovely homosexual brothers/sisters/comrades, please, you have fought hard for this basic rights and some of us heterosexuals have fought along side you. This right, albeit emphermeral in California, did not come easy. While I understand that straight couples do that all the time, please, think first before you go into the court house to "make a point." Please do not get a divorce three months after you got married. The point here is to show that the commitment to your partner is important to you, don't cheapen it.

And Who Said There's Never Good News?

My coworker said he had never heard "good" news (news that are not tragic and sad) on the news. So here goes:

Companies that have No Layoffs -- Ever!

A few tips for those future business owners.

Monday, April 6, 2009

My Husband, In a Nutshell

Oh my god, this entry on Wired.com blog totally explained my husband's behavior years ago that even he himself could not understand.
Given "Expert" Advice, Brains Shut Down
The title is self-explanatory enough that your probably don't even need to read the actual entry. So why did I say that's my husband, in a nutshell? Allow me to tell you this story. It's on house-hunting, back long, long time ago where the myth of real estate is still the best investment to put your money was still unbroken....

So shortly after we moved to this area, my husband wanted to buy a house. It was entirely inexplicable -- we were not certain that we wanted to settle down in this area; my job situation was definitely unsettled; there no reason to think that was a great time to buy a house. Not to mention that house prices in this area is arguably only for the wealthy. Regardless, we started looking at houses. "Just browsing," he said.

Let's just say we started at our budget x. Shortly thereafter, we were looking at an amount that exceeds our original budget by 25%. Remember this was the era when your agent will lie through their teeth to get you the biggest loan remotely possible? I was utterly amazed that when the agent called and told us this house that exceeds our original budget by 35% was "a steal," my husband actually paused to think about it. WTH???

Not only that, the agent showed us the price that the seller bought the house for, and the asking price then. Mind you, the asking price was LOWER than the purchased price that the seller paid. When Buying Price > Selling Price, the price has GONE DOWN. One doesn't need a phD degree to figure that out, yet my husband continued to chant "House prices never go down. House prices never go down," like a brain-washed zombie the entire time while staring at the figures in front of him. "But the asking price is LOWER than the buying price!!" I tried to break the spell but failed miserably.

Luckily, this symptom seemed to only affect the male gender, so it's up the the intelligent and rational wife (me) to put her foot down and said "no!" It's funny; it would appear that these agents have a sixth sense -- when Hubby called to decline, they would continue to try to talk him back into it; when I call, they knew instinctively that it was over, and that it's not even worth their time to try to convince me otherwise. ;) We really dodged a bullet there.

And a side note, during this entire fiasco, a different agent told us that he can get us a loan that exceeds our original budget by 60%! I have NO idea where he learned to do this math, because any way I crunched the numbers, the ONLY way we could afford that is to give us a few luxury items such as food, gas (biking or walking to work is good for health, I guess), electricity, water, and pretty much everything else.... But who needs all those when you can put a large check in the agent's pocket and a monthly donation (interest) to the bank!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Christian Tourette

According to wikipedia, Tourette syndrom is "an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by the presence of multiple physical (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic; these tics characteristically wax and wane" and "Tourette's was once considered a rare and bizarre syndrome, most often associated with the exclamation of obscene words or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks (coprolalia)."

So I guess I can safely describe those who cannot control but to blurt out their Christian faith randomly and inappropriately (mid conversation with nothing to do with religion and sometimes to total strangers) as sufferer of what I'd call "Christian Tourette."

Okay, maybe it's not exactly Tourette, maybe it's just a "vocal (phonic) tic," unless you count the inability to stop butting into other people's business as a physical (motor) tic.

My friend who had lived in Illinois told me that to be consider having truth faith, you must acquire the ability to constantly remind others of your faith. Now the mystery of why AND how have finally been solved.

Knee-Jerk Reflex

Oh wow, there certainly was a lot of shootings around the country lately California (a few miles from us no less!), New York, Philadelphia, Washington... I expected more petty crime/robberies to go up as the economy worsen, I did not expect more shootings.

To start this entry, I would like to clarify my take on owning guns -- I don't get why people need it (nowadays, don't quote me the reason BEHIND it why we have it in the first place) but I am not strongly against it either. And since it's legal AND it is a RIGHT, I am planning on owning one someday.

What baffles me is Americans resilience to giving up their guns? It seems that this is a country based a lot on knee-jerk reflexes -- anything bad happens, people will freak out and call for a ban on this, additional restrictions on that, especially if the incident involve kids. Whenever kids are involved, common sense goes out the window, "Oh, we have to do this, this, and that to prevent that from happening again!" Much like our frivolous law suits, it has gotten way out of hand. Every issue except for guns. Sometimes, really, people should just take a little bit more responsibilities in their actions. All issues except when it comes to guns, that's when logic goes out the window. It's truly an eye-opener. Kids got shot in schools - "It's our constitutional rights to bear arms." Men/women shooting their entire family -- "It's our constitutional rights to own guns." Cops getting shot.... you get the idea.

Like I said, I am not passionate enough in this subject to fight this battle one way or another. I am merely commenting on people's passion on their guns. And can someone please explain to me about one of our latest shootings -- Police say Richard Poplawski, 23, had been upset about losing his job and feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.

Granted, this person clearly has lost his mind but the fear of gun-banning is part of his motive to shoot at cops? If anything, isn't that an ammunition, so to speak, for the opposite of why people should NOT own gun?

Perhaps I only think that because I grew up where most people have never and will never see a real gun in their lives... I guess Asian peeps used to walk around in swords, and now we can still legally own knives in the comfort of your own home. It's all the same idea, right?

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Science v Religion

Here's a good quote from Wired blog:-
Science is about explaining the how of the natural world: how the universe began, how life originated, how the diversity of species occurred. Scientists feel no need for their work to answer why the universe exists, why we are here. For scientists, those are questions better left to philosophy, religion and after-work hours.

Perhaps creationists find theories that only answer how to be completely unsatisfactory. Maybe for creationists, any theory that doesn't answer why contains weaknesses.

...

Even if science could give creationists solutions to some of these issues, evolution is never going to answer their most pressing questions: Why are we here? Why were we given consciousness? What is the meaning of life? Only alternative, supernatural explanations of the natural world, the type espoused by intelligent design, can answer those questions.

Maybe evolutionists and creationists can't find common ground because they really aren't even having the same argument. Scientists are fighting to preserve their ability to answer how unimpeded by why. Creationists are fighting to have answers to why, unthreatened by answers to how.

3 Down, 47 More to Go

If you have not yet heard, gay people can legally get married in Iowa as of Thursday, April 3, 2009!!! Yay!!! 3 down!! 47 more to go!!! It is so sad to see that we, California, even with San Francisco, has just voted for a constitutional ban on gay marriage. The idea of putting discrimination into the constitution is despicable; it's one thing to disagree with an idea, it's another to blatantly discriminate.

Supreme Court Justice Mark Cady, who wrote the unanimous decision, at one point invoked the court’s first-ever decision, in 1839, which struck down slavery laws 17 years before the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of a slave owner to treat a person as property.

Iowa’s gay marriage ban “is unconstitutional, because the county has been unable to identify a constitutionally adequate justification for excluding plaintiffs from the institution of civil marriage,” Cady wrote in the 69-page opinion that seemed to dismiss the concept of civil unions as an option for gay couples.

The ruling, however, also addressed what it called the “religious undercurrent propelling the same-sex marriage debate,” and said judges must remain outside the fray.

Some Iowa religions are strongly opposed to same-sex marriages, the justices noted, while some support the notion.

“Our constitution does not permit any branch of government to resolve these types of religious debates and entrusts to courts the task of ensuring that government avoids them,” the opinion says.

A little research will tell you that Iowa has always been a free state -- slavery was abolished in Iowa 17 (that's SEVENTEEN) years before the US Supreme Court outlawed slavery. Wow, does that mean gays will be able to finally get married freely and legally in this country in another 17 years? I guess that's not that bad for an uphill battle.

Opponent of gay marriage, wake up! How much longer are you going to use religion to justify hatred and discrimination. Then again, why do I think the brain-washed bunch will one day be able to think for themselves?

Friday, April 3, 2009

God & Suicide

New song that I felt in love with:-

I can live with god and with suicide
the same thing holds if I close my eyes
it's a truth so pure it can kill you dead
a taste of heaven mixed with hell inside of my head

If a three-four cord can ignite a flame
and a girl like you can forget my name
then I'm that far gone in this crooked grave
with a pistol for my creature and a feather for my day

When I do go down in a rain of toil
with a hand in my satchel and my knees in the soil
I can live with god and with suicide
a lover in her calico, a pony stands at her side

I can live with god and with suicide
the same thing holds if I close my eyes
it's a truth so pure it can kill you dead
a taste of heaven mixed with hell inside of my head

You can listen to it here.

Funny thing, when I stuck this song on my iPod, it was filed under the "Indy" category automatically. Does Indy mean the lyrics just doesn't have to make sense? :O I mean, I absolutely love the tunes of the song and even though I understand every single word in it, I have NO idea what it is saying. Like a string of random words strung together grammatically...

Also, I first heard this song on Chuck, the TV show. Much as I love that it had introduced me to the song, I still could not figure out why they played the song during the scene... granted, kind of hard to figure it out what scene the song can possibly go with, if I am clueless what it is about... any suggestions?

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

From the Kiva site I've discovered a group called the Atheists, Agnostics, Free Thinkers, Non-Secular Humanist, and Non-Religious. Further research in the community area led me to the discover of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster -- a group who "believed" that the ultimate creator is, well, a big blob of spaghetti with two meatballs embedded. =.= Albeit the a bit juvenile approach and slightly phallic choice of their idol, I enjoyed the concept of it. As I have mentioned one of my previous post and surely many more to come, I am getting very fed up with a certain specific religion's persistent effort of shoving their belief down other's throats. Interesting enough, the homepage of Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster also features a "hate mail" section. (Only one with a big heart can feature a "hate mail" section on their homepage, if I may add.)

I feel compelled to quote a couple of them:

ARE YOU [Censored] JOKING??????!!!! A flying Spagetti Monster created this world??? you idiots have way too much time on your hands. I thought i saw it all But YOU guys for sure topped the stupidest list of SHIT ive seen/ OMG please get a life.

This lady has certainly took the meaning of "literally" to a whole different level. No, not every one of us believe in every thing that's spoon fed to us literally.

Here's a quite standard one:

I am at loss for words. Listen, I don’t understand why you people who believe in this “garbage” and at that matter, anyone who does not believe that God is not our savior feel the need to rat christians out for their beliefs. I know a couple of you can respect it, and that’s just fine with me. But many of you just plain rant on us christians, but what have we ever done to you, has god hurt you in any way? God created you, and everything you have, everything you can imagine and you say things like “I hate him” “He’s not real” “That dumb @$$ doesn’t even exist!” Well, could you please respect our opinons. We have done everything possible to reach out to you, and try to invite you to the church of Christ, and you have done nothing but rant us out.

See what I meant? These people are incapable of even contemplating the idea that there are individuals out there who believe differently than them (though not necessarily a flying spaghetti monster, no offense). It was clearly stated in the letter that God (as their religion defines it) is the truth, the only truth and nothing but the truth. :O My favorite part is "has God hurt you in any way?" Hmmmm, allow me to answer a question with a question, -- What have the homosexual individuals ever done to you? Surely the bible may have mentioned that the act of homosexuality is "not natural," -- not sure about the actual wording, I do not proclaim that I have read the entire Bible cover to cover -- but I never did quite figure out how we went from "unnatural" to "God hate homosexuals."

Surely, the act of homosexuality is unnatural. I do not argue that, as two males and two females cannot biologically reproduce. But tell these same group of people that we are just animals whose purpose is to procreate and they will try to stone you to death just as swiftly. If you argue that human beings have conscious, then we must also be given free will, and that will include the choice of the gender of your partner, let it be the same as you or the opposite of you. There are greater meaning to our lives on earth than merely to reproduce.

The very idea that "God" and "hate" being put in the same sentence is baffling. I thought the idea behind a religion (fictitious or otherwise) is to spread love, evidently my view point, learned from an Asian country, is way skewed. Religion is our wonderful U.S. of A seems to focus more on brain washing and manipulating the individual than any thing else. It is very sad to see a religion succumb to this. If there is a God, He must be very disappointed at those who are just trying to control the crowds in His name.

In short, Go Church of the FSM! I certainly support you guys on principles. :)

9 Quintillion

We had March Madness at work, where people filled out brackets, gathered around, ate, and watched basketball on TV. A year ago, I could not have told you what a bracket is or what the seed number means... So while I was filling out the bracket, my coworker S informed me that I could join the Yahoo bracket too, and that the perfect bracket could win $1 million. I felt for sure that filling out the perfect bracket will be a lot easier than picking the lottery winning number. Just for the fun of it (I'm crazy, okay?), I looked up the odds of filling out the perfect bracket. I was wrong, in fact, not just wrong, I could not possibly be more wrong -- as it turned out, the odds of winning lottery jacket is 1 out 42.5 million and the odds of filling out the perfect bracket is, get this, 9 QUINTILLION. What is a quintillion, you may ask. A quintillion is 18 zeroes...

Check out the calculation at:

http://ask.yahoo.com/20060322.html

For more units that you have never heard of in your life:

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