9. Beliefs are not truths, opinions are not facts. No matter how much you believe in something or want it to be true or real, that doesn't make it true, real or any more plausible.

7. Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

6. A lie can be told in one short and quotable sentence that can easily travel across the world while it can take many paragraphs to show it to be false.

5. Everyone is wrong, even you and me. Everyone has beliefs and opinions that are wrong.

4: Shit happens and life's a bitch, bad things happen to people whether they're good or bad.

3: The universe doesn't care about you, your wants, needs, or beliefs.

2. People are fallible. Our perception of the world is fallible and our memory is fallible.

1. Because of 9,6, 5, 4, 3 and 2: everything everyone says is up for criticism, ridicule and parody from any one anywhere no exceptions.

                          

Music in stores.
You go into a store to buy something and then your ears are assaulted by crappy music. Even when the music is good you don't want to listen to it while you fucking shopping. Half the time I'm in a store I have a fucking headache because of the fucking music. Why do stores feel the need to play music? I work in a store and it doesn't play music and it's a lot better then if it did. Half the time you don't even hear the music, it's playing but it just blends in to the back ground noise the other half the music makes your fucking ears bleed. What is the point of it?

People who can't put things back where they belong.
As I said i work in a store, I work stock and recovery. What that means is: I put stuff on the shelfs and put things back where they belong. I don't mind working recovery, I don't like it, it's dull, makes my feet hurt but it's a job and I get paid (I get paid crap but at least I get paid). However what I loath about it is that I have to walk around the store to find the crap you people place in random places and then put it back where it belongs. I understand that you change your mind but don't know where the thing goes but don't place it in some random part of the store! Just take it to the register and they'll put it aside to be put back where it belongs.

Loud people in restaurants.
You go into a restaurant and it's so fucking loud that your group can't hear each other. Why do people have to be so loud in restaurants? I've figured it out; it only takes one person, one loud asshole, because of that one (or more) person the people at the tables around him can't hear each other so they talk louder with means the people around them can't hear each other, etc. You don't need to yell when you speak! You all at the same fucking table they can hear you.

The size of fast food drinks.
It use to be that a small was a small, a medium was a medium and a large was a large but now days a small is a medium, a medium is a large and a large is an "Oh my god! I can't drink all that, if I drunk all that my bladder would explode and I'd get diabetes!". How much soda do you people need to drink at a meal? Though the most infuriating part is actually my fault; when ordering I never remember that the sizes are now bigger so I end up asking for mediums when I should ask for smalls, then I complain about the sizes and still forget next time. Yeah, i are dumb, yes i is.

The news.
If they're not talking about something horrible they're sucking every ounce of blood out a story to the point where your sick of fucking hearing about it. They never about about stories because they should be talked about, it's allays "if it bleeds it leads, if it's a controversy milk it till it's dead". Thats not good news ethics, thats not giving us the stuff we need to hear about. It's no wander so many people think the worlds coming to an end when you rarely hear anything positive from the news. We live in a time when people are heather, happier, wealthier and safer than ever before that includes most poor countries but if you go by the news the world is going to hell and we are worse off than we have ever been.

Game over screens.
Your playing a game, you die what happens? Do you automatically go back to the last point saved or loaded, the last check point, beginning of the level or start screen (depending on the type of game you are playing)? Nope, you get an annoying and often infuriating game over screen. Unless it's an arcade game there is no point in a game over screen other than infuriating the player. Why do they have these? Who thought it was a good idea to put these in games?

Anti-elitism.
When it comes to a plumber coming to fix their pipes people want the best, when it comes to doctors people want the best, they want the solders to be the best, etc but when it comes to the politicians they elect they want them to be just like they are. They don't want the elite they want someone just like them, they want some one who shares their opinions, beliefs and personality instead of someone who understands the various socioeconomic condition and the histories that made those socioeconomic conditions. If you get someone who is actually qualified or wants people who are qualified to be in positions of power they are called an "elitist" as if that is a bad thing and people look at that as something bad.

Faith.
First of the holy trinity of stupid. In any discussion about religion someone will inevitably say "just have faith" or "I have faith", it means they have no reason to hold that belief but they refuse consider the possibility that their god might not exist or doesn't want or do what they say their god wants or does. That is not why I hate faith though; I hate faith because it creates a mindset of acceptance with out critically thinking about the idea, situation, etc. Some ideas, actions and things are bad and can have bad effects. Millions if not billions are lost everyday due to scams and quackery and people suffer and die due to scams and quackery. If people would just think critically allot of money and lives would be saved.

Utopianists.
I've talked about these morons already and I don't like them. They are the simple minded idiots that don't get that the world is infinitely more complicated than any of us can comprehend and that what ever they think will solve all the worlds problems will not and can not. The world is too complicated and there are no perfect solutions.

Authoritarians.
The last of the holy trinity of stupid. From communism, to nazism, to the worst of religion, to dictatorships, to people trying to impose their beliefs on you. Authoritarianism the cause or at least the biggest part of them. From someone saying homosexuality is wrong because God says so, to a solders commuting atrocities because a dictator ordered them to, people trying to censer critical works, authoritarianism harms everything. It doesn't matter what the authority is, whether it is a god, a book, a leader or even a majority, you don't question the authority, you don't criticize the authority, you do not make fun of the authority, you do as your told. This is a dangerous mindset. Nothing should be immune to criticism or parody especially an authority. Authorities are not always right, they can be very, very wrong and no one should ever fallow an authority simply because (s)he/it/they are an authority or do as that authority says simply because (s)he/it/they are an authority.
© 2012 all rights reserved

                          

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

If your American please call or write your representative and tell them to stop SOPA. The future of the internet is at stake.

Learn more about SOPA/PIPA.
Find out where your Representatives stands on SOPA
OPEN - Representative Issa's competing bill
Donate to Fight for the Future - People trying to stop these bills in Washington

Blog will be back at 12:00

                          

Star Wars and Star Trek are the big science fiction franchises, they are what most people think of when you say "science fiction". Star wars is an epic hero's journey where Luke grows from a farm boy to a hero who must confront his families dark past, redeem his father and resist the temptations that corrupted his father. Star Trek is the story of explorers who go out to meat new life and civilizations and defend their country from those who threaten it. They are both good, and they both have shit attached to them. Most geeks agree, most people who's seen both agree but there is this undercurrent of competition between them. There are the questions of which is better, there are the what if questions of who would beat who in a fight and then there are the living stereotypes who proclaim "Star War sucks Star trek is the best" or "Star Trek Suck Star Wars is the best" then they nerd fight with toy batleths and light sabers till their moms come to pick them up.

Why does this competition have to be there? Why do they have to compete? The two franchises are very different and comparing them is like comparing apples to oranges . The two are incomparable. Star Wars is science fantasy; it has the hero's journey, magic, wizards, a black knight, etc. Star Trek is science fiction (there is a difference between science fiction and science fantasy (or science fiction fantasy), science fantasy is science fiction but with strong fantasy elements (Star Wars, Outlaw Star) while science fiction can have some fantasy elements (telepathy, telekinesis, energy beings, etc) it generally lacks major fantasy elements (Star Trek, Babylon 5)) that generally focuses on exploration and while can at times be cream cheese soft it is generally harder. Star Wars is a film trilogy, Star Trek is 6 TV series and 11 films with one more on the way. They do have similarities (shitty prequels, glorified fan fiction- I mean "expanded universes", etc) but they share many of those similarities with other TV shows, movies, books, video games and even tabletop RPGs.

You can compare the two story-wise but thats like comparing a romantic comedy to an action movie or a soap opera to a episodic mystery show, they don't compare. Comparing them technologically or militarily doesn't work ether because the physics of the two universes are so different, nether could actually fight each other because their technology wouldn't work in the others universe. The character exist in different environments and deal with different situations.

Star Trek and Star wars shouldn't compete, they are both good and entertaining, lets just enjoy them for what they are. Except the prequels, fuck Anakin, fuck Archer, lets just stick every copy of the prequel trilogy and enterprise in a rocket and send them into the sun.
© 2011 all rights reserved

                          

More of CR! at http://chadrocco.deviantart.com/

Wikipedia Blackout Petition http://www.wikipediablackout.com/?referring_akid=.55381.i2re1T&source=typ-tw

Contacting your Represenitives http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

                          

I tried to write a post about this before but it turned into a post about how we are gods.
When talking about GM food, cloning, stem cell research, etc some one will inevitably use a tired old cliché argument "your/they're playing god". They say these while they use computers made or metals that have been strip mined out of the earth with high explosives and large vehicles, plastics which are synthetic materials made from oil that was pumped out of the earth and made in large factories that use to be natural forests, grass lands and deserts wile eating food made from plants that have been so altered by selective breeding over many thousands of years can't even reproduce with out humans. Also: cars, roads, houses, apartments, mp3 players, televisions, video games, massive buildings, surgery and medicine.

If you can't tell, I 'm, calling those people hypocrites.

They will use the "playing god" against argument anything new, different or they just don't like. They will use it against abortion and contraception despite the long history of abortion and contraception, they will use it against vaccines despite the fact that vaccination is biologically no different than catching a defective virus, etc.

Everything we are capable of doing from genetic engineering, to cloning, to dropping a seed in a hole we are capable of because of our brains and the tools we can build, if we were crated by a god, that god created us with th ability to make these tools and that god hasn't come down to complain about it.

Say we are playing god, is that wrong? The typical response would be "only God can play god". Why? Imagine if we could figure out how to grow meat in the laboratory in enough quantity to replace farming of animals, that is just as good s farmed meet and cheaper. Leg of lamb and lamb cops with out the dead lamb, veal with out a dead baby cow, pork chops, roast beef, filet mignon, barbecue ribs, even leather for your couch and jacket all produced in greater amounts, using less space and costs less. Imagine if we could grow replacement body parts. Lung cancer? We'll grow you new lungs. Liver failure? we'll grow you a new liver. Third degree burn? We'll grow you some new skin. Lost you arm in a traffic accident? We'll grow you a new arm. There are more examples of how "playing god" can make people's lives better and longer.
What if God doesn't care if we play god? What if it wants us too? What if it wants us to one day become gods? If a God exists it could want us you one day become gods equal to it. That could be it's ultimate plan for us.

"Playing God" is a stupid argument made by stupid people who have no logical reason to dislike what they use the argument against.
© 2011 all rights reserved

                          

There have been many alien invasion movies, literature and television. These invasions are usually easily thwarted by some Achilles heel the aliens have or some clever tactic the aliens never expected. Sometimes the invasion has happened and we never noticed it, they live among is in secrete over throwing us from the inside until we discover and defeat them in the end. Other invasions would not actual be invasions, they would pretend to come in peace but their actually goals are sinister and evil.
It's all stupid of course (except maybe the "we come in peace with sinister plans for your species"), in a fight between us now and aliens who's technology is hundreds, thousands maybe even millions of years more advanced than ours we would loose quickly. But they're movies, they're fiction and we like to win in the end so the aliens have weaknesses that the protagonists can exploit.

What would an alien invasion actually be like?

The motivations of the aliens is important in understanding what an alien invasion will look like. Of course what wouldn't be a motivation is as important as what would be a motivation.
Aliens would not come to earth looking for resources. There are plenty of resources in space, if they need water they would look at comets or the moons of the gas giants, metals and minerals can be found in asteroids some in greater abundance than on earth. Any resources unique to earth would have to come from life which would mean the aliens could find ways to produce those resources.
Aliens would not come to earth to enslave us, being that advanced they wouldn't need to enslave anybody. They could use robots or a genetically engineered slave race.
They wouldn't come here to eat us because a species advanced enough to cross light-years of space would be advanced enough to be able to grow test tube meat which they could grow in much more abundance than they would get by sending us to a slaughter house.
What would their motivations be? The motivations of invading aliens can be broken down into three categories: imperialists, kill all humans- ... -ists, colonists, parasitic aliens looking for hosts and "have you herd the good news of chach'chulch'chach'chulch'ich"- ... -ists.

The imperialists would just want to expand their territory and wiping us out probably wouldn't be worth the effort to them. They'd probably contact us saying: "Hay, yo we're the Chraaplachkshublachh Empire. We got big ass guns that can shatter continents and we're in orbit too high for you to do shit about so just pledge you allegiance to us and everything will be fine," if we catch a stupid virus and refuse they'd blast every military base and several major first world cities into oblivion, we'd pledge loyalty to them then.
The kill all humans-ists would have one of three motivations: space-nazies, environmentalist extremists and aliens who think we're too violent to let live.
For the space-nazies and aliens who think we're to violent to let live it would be simple: no invasion just knock a few mile wide rocks our way. For environmentalist extremists it would be a lot more difficult to deal with us. They would have to wipe us out in a way that wouldn't damage the environment any worse than we would if left alive. The best way for them to get rid of us would be an engineered super plague. They'd probably engineer dozen viruses that we have no resistance to and would rapidly spread through the population. What isolated pockets of survivors could be taken out from orbit. Of course once we are gone they'd have to come down and clean up whats left behind.
For colonists the best thing to do would be to land in Australia (it is the least densely populated Continent) and offer technology to the Australian government, the advanced alien technology would give Australia both economic and military advantages over every other country including the U.S. but that wouldn't be an invasion sooo. The colonists may view us as a threat or there may not be enough space on earth for us and them so they would have to get rid of us, they wouldn't have to wipe us out but they would at least have to cause a die back. Orbital bombardment is an option but that would damage the planet and why destroy the cities when they could inhabit the cities after they get rid of us? The plague option would be the best way to deal with us. Given that they would be colonists or refugees they might not have the time or resources to engineer a super plague in which the best option would be for them to take out every government, every military base, power plant, oil refinery, oil and fuel stockpile and storage. What fuel remained would quickly dwindle, with out fuel you can't get the food from the farms to the people and the medicine from the factories to the people. Food and medicine would quickly dwindle in most arias leading to mass starvation and disease. Within a few months starvation, disease and the conflicts caused by them would probably kill a few billion. When they land we'd be easy to take out and they could secure our cities and live in them.
You'd expect me to say: "By the time parasitic aliens are advanced enough to get here they'd be able to genetically engineer a perfect host," and while that is pretty much true it could be that different alien species develop different technologies at different rates, the parasitic aliens might have focused on transportation technologies and ignored the biological sciences, then they could get here with no knowledge of genetic engineering. If they do come and by some improbable chance they are able to infect; us just image a plague of sentient parasites capable of building and using technology.
Then there are religious dogmatists who want to spread their religion by phaser and blaster (otherwise they wouldn't invade). Like the imperialists they would threaten to destroy us from orbit. They would then force our governments to adopt their religion and only their religion, the rest you can imagine cause it's happened before.

Of course an invasion could happen in the fashion it does in movies and TV. If the aliens had limited resources they might not be able to attack us from orbit, they might have to land and use what weapons they have to "defend" (as in preemptive attack) themselves from the savage hairless apes and they might not have thought we would be here so the weapons they have might not be that powerful. Of course in that situation the smart thing to do would be to offer us technology for land but if they assume we're violent and will try to kill them they might go for a preemptive attack.
© 2011 all rights reserved

                          

The slogan or the closest thing a non-cohesive group with no real common goal can get is: "Stop corporate greed". This shows that like the tea party idiots the occupy idiots have no idea why things are the way they are and how things work.
You can not stop corporate greed, you can not minimize corporate greed in fact with out some greedy people in a business the business will not survive.
Business A is run by people who care about their customers, their workers and the environment, business B is run by people who only care about profit. Business A pays its workers good wages, prices its products reasonably and properly disposes of polluting material, business B pays it's workers as little as it can, it prices its products as high as it can and disposes of materials the cheapest way they can. Business A competes with business B. Business B makes more money than business A, because B makes more money it's able to lower it's prices to beneath the A prices and is better able to withstand fluctuations in the market. Because of these business B out competes business A and ultimately absorbs business A our forces it out of business. The greedy win.

The occupy idiots or at least most of them blame the currant economic problems on corporate greed. The economic problems were not caused by corporate greed they were caused by regulatory issues, deregulations, stupidity on all sides and the general business culture and the culture at large.

before the economic problems we had politicians talking about increasing economic growth of their aria ignoring the fact that you can only grow so much, you had people buying houses they couldn't afford, banks giving loans to people who couldn't afford them then selling off the loans for quick profit, people at the top of companies throwing parties on the corporate dime. This isn't greed this is a larger cultural, regulatory and educational problem.
© 2011 all rights reserved