First there was ninja v ninja checkers – and now a chance to settle the age old question – pirates v ninjas.
Month: June 2009
Beaten to the punch
Facebook’s vanity URLs have been launched. Some other Nathan Campbell beat me to the Nathan Campbell punch – so I, as in gmail, am nm.campbell.
It took me a few minutes to realise you had to go to www.facebook.com/username to sign up.
I’m a bit annoyed. I wanted Nathan.Campbell. Robyn didn’t even care, but got her preferred option just the same.
OCC Episode 5
The fifth, and penultimate, episode of the cynical and unacclaimed Christian drama/parody/soap opera.
The ultimate episode is on the DVD and still to be ripped and uploaded. This may take me some time. But in the mean time, enjoy. May contain art rock… and Coldplay… in this one you’ve pretty much got to ignore the video – it’s about ten seconds out…
Where we go wrong
I’m going to do something odd for a second. I’m going to put on the “naturist” atheist hat. I watched this video (with a pretty strong language warning) of Christian comments about atheism on blogs. It’s disturbing.
Atheists are not stupid.
Peter Jensen put it best when he said that atheists and Christians have a lot in common – they reject all Gods, we reject all Gods but one.
If you start from the assumption that the universe is a product of chance, infinite time producing every possible result, then atheism makes the most sense. The whole argument comes down to that question, and both answers seem prima facie “logical” (if not, in atheist’s thinking “rational”).
So when you throw stones at all atheists on the basis of the intolerance of the few remember you may end up in a video like this – that shows a lot of Christians not “speaking the truth with love”…
Again, there’s a “strong and nasty” language warning on this video – but it’s coming from “Christians”.
Should we be worried if atheists take over the world? Personally I don’t think so. They’re not all Pol Pot or the Barefoot Bum.
“Evolution of Religion”
One of the arguments that atheists use that I don’t like is the accusation that Christianity is just plagiarism – taking bits common to other religions and applying them – as though its relative newness (2000 years compared to say Greek polytheism) means it’s just been able to “pick and choose” in order to colonise the infidels.
They always play it like it’s a trump card Christians have never considered… “Did you know that the obscure tribe from the middle of nowhere also have …?” Christianity is just a mish mash of other religious myths. A myth mash…
This is what happens when you dismiss any truth in any religion.
It’s rubbish. It’s one of those arguments where they need to put the “God hat” on for a minute and look at it from a believer’s perspective – just because something uses the same elements doesn’t make it a copy. Water is not a copy of carbon dioxide. Though both contain oxygen. While Cat Stevens may suggest that Coldplay were copying him by using similar musical notes in a similar progression to one of his songs – it doesn’t make it so.
So, this post about communion on the Friendly Atheist made me angrier than most.
While Atheists believe there is no truth to any religion adherents of those religions all claim that their’s is uniquely true – they can’t all be products of each other at that point. Though Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism, and Mormonism to an extent claims to be a fulfillment of Christianity. The idea that common elements is a critique is wrongheaded.
If you’ve got an hour and twenty minutes then you should watch this lecture on the evolution of religion and get annoyed. Like I did. About ten minutes in.
That is all.
What if Star Wars was a TV Serial?
I’m using the fact that Robyn is writing school reports to do some spring cleaning of the “starred items” in Google Reader – which I basically use as a queue of things to post here… there were things from a couple of months ago waiting to see the light of day – including this Macgyveresque Star Wars TV serial intro… You’ll understand if you watch it. I got it from Ben at bathgates.net – which is truly one of my favourite blogs. It’s scope is pretty much as broad as mine so it makes me feel less eclectic.
Superhero Supply Store
I’ve written about Real Life Super Heroes and the Real Life Super Hero Registry before. Those not sure what I’m talking about should check those links before reading further – or just read this one sentence summary: There are people who dress up in costumes and run around fighting crime… for real…
Now, we’re on the same page.
I’ve always wondered where Real Life Super Heroes go to get their awesome supplies and costumes. Well, now I know. The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co – “Online purveyors of high quality crime fighting merchandise” indeed. They sell the complete range of Super hero requirements from capes to cartography… and everything in between (including Robots).
The Standard Cape.
“For over two centuries, the BSSCo. Standard 58″ Superhero Cape has been the industry standard in fly-wear for professional heroes. Every cape we ship meets all Superhero Alliance and FAA regulation requirements, and is specially designed for maximum flight control and resistance to air burn.”
There are occupational hazards that you may not consider before taking on the role – but the Super Hero Supply Co has you covered.
A Flight Tilt Indicator
“For mid-flight orientation and positioning, the Flight Tilt Indicator finds and displays the angle of your vehicle relative to the Earth’s axis”
Run Arrest
“Fast-drying, Compound X-based formula for sealing torn seams on tights, leotards, capes, hoods, gloves, and other non-breathable superheroic fabrics.”
Canned Intelligence
“Our neuro-oil formula is specially designed to meet the demands of heroes in the field:
-Eliminates idle, repetitive thinking.
-Restores quickness to one-liner delivery.
-Prevents corrosion from sidekick.
Recommended for use with brain mold, power supplements, and all weaponry. Improved performance on TV quiz shows or standardized tests not guaranteed.”
Matter
“Fundamental building block of the material universe, in convenient evaporated powder.”
And Anti-Matter
“BSSCo. Antimatter reverses the process by which subatomic energy organizes into material form. Suggested for use in the dissolution of all material structures, including human and non-human bodies, all forms in nature, buildings, material planets, unwanted hair, paperwork.
WARNING: Ordering in the same shipment as Matter is a waste of 20 bucks.”
Coming soon…
There’s heaps more there – so get ordering and get on with saving the world…
“What’s really in these cans and bottles?
If you purchase a canned or bottled item, your shipment will include an information card stating exactly what’s inside of it. It is all safe. (Unless you’re a supervillain.)”
It’s what’s inside that counts
Have you ever wondered what’s holding all your favourite cartoon characters together?
Skeletons of course. Anatomically correct skeletons in fact. At least that’s what Michael Paulus reckons…
Dirt cheap art
Writing “wash me” on the back of someone’s car is so passe. Any clown with a finger can do that.
Reproducing classic art work or portraits of universally famous people is a much more difficult proposition…
The O’Riley Factor
Christopher O’Riley is a modern day renaissance man. If you believe the hype on his personal website – he’s a TV and Radio personality and classically trained pianist.
One of my colleagues lent me “True Love Waits” an O’Riley collection of Radiohead songs played on piano. It is most excellent. Here are a couple of samples from YouTube. Karma Police starts at about the one minute mark,
This one just has the album cover rather than him actually playing the song…
A bunch of links – June 12, 2009
- Econoblogger explains why Batman villains shouldn’t cooperate
- An Episode of House
- Element 112 to be Officially Added to the Periodic Table
- Woman Threw Away Mom’s $1 Million Mattress
- Can the Bible tell us if the universe began as a quantum vacuum fluctuation?
- iSamurai: FIGHT With Your iPhones
- Batteries to Draw Power From Ambient RF
- How to Build your own Tesla Coil
- Man Utd start Ronaldo cash spending spree
- Get Tastier Results By Salting Your Meat At The Right Time
- Make Fresh-Baked Bread In Five Minutes
- How to Filet a Fish Like a Pro [Eat To Live]
- FINAL: 7 Preaching Discoveries in 7 Years (#6: Be Brief)
- Theology of the City by Greg Gilbert
- Rant
- Advice for Atheists Who Want to Engage Theists
- FINAL: 7 Preaching Discoveries in 7 Years (#6: Be Brief)
- Should God Appear to Atheists?
- Did You Know: The Nicene Creed
Hub cap
There should be a maxim when it comes to USB hub designs – “just because you can doesn’t mean you should”. Let me show you what I mean. Here are eight USB hubs that should arguably never have been invented – and one bonus one within the list that I’d actually buy… see if you can pick it.
iWalk with iShoes
Marketing a new product these days is just a matter of sticking an “i” in front of the function it performs or the noun that best describes it. And yes uneducated grammar nazis nouns can be descriptive – and in fact should be, it’ll cut down on your crap adjective use. Anyway, I digress. I give you, via the magic of the Internet, the iShoe. Footwear for the iGen. Or personal transport for the iGen – because lets face it – Segways are so Gen Y.
These iShoes will set you back $US250 – but that’s ok – they’re “a step towards the future”…
Here they are in action.
Not convinced? The guys who made them thought of everything – here’s the faq.
Tickle me Elmo?
I don’t normally get excited about Chinglish. It seems vaguely racist to laugh at another country’s attempts to come to grips with a literally foreign language.
Seeing a cute furry thing with that written on the box reminds me a little bit of our family’s pet kitten – Cadbury. I was a cat person for about four months*. Until Cadbury met an untimely demise due to a windblown pot plant… to cut a long story short it crapped all over little sister number 2’s arm.
Just one of those stories I’ve always wanted to put on my blog but never had a pretext for… until now.
* I have no real recollection of how long we had the cat for – but it was most traumatic when he/she/it died. We even had a day off school.
Ninja signs
If you think your awesome castle may suffer a visit from ninja assassins you should make sure they know how to get in just so they don’t damage your carefully manicured rock garden…
Who am I kidding? Ninjas move so quickly they leave no trace – but having one of these graffitied signs outside your abode would be awesome…
